The Lights Are Definitely On ...

Rating: 5/10 (25 October 2016)

... but unfortunately no-one's home.
By which I mean to say: Plenty of things are happening, but there is no evocative core, character building, or genuine emotion.
It's a film for people that need things to happen, without any feels involved.
It's full of bombast, exposition, left field cuts and platitudinous axioms that essentially do not amount to much. This leaves very little space for performance or subtlety from the leads.
That being said there is good space (made) for comedy, and it's very well done. Ultimately, though, it's a shame that those short moments (which gave more character than any other in the film) are few and far between. Even the physical comedy is good. It's by no means a dark and broody affair, it's just that the pace is far too fast, and the cuts are far too frequent for any personal narrative to build over all the stuff that is happening.
This is a shame, because the film is gorgeous, and I was genuinely blown away a few times. Visually it's stunning, however that really translates poorly to any drama for the characters involved.
I believe that there is a film in there, somewhere, perhaps on the cutting room floor, I do not know. Perhaps I needed a bit more time with him as a person before and after before we were thrown in to scene after scene of (quite, quite, awesome) action.
Ultimately, I think they've struggled to tame the language, and have perhaps gone a bit too respectful of the source material, which is unweildy at the best of times. Dumbing it down really could have helped the performances sell this a little more, and since we are at the start of the good Doctor's journey, that might not have been too bad a thing.
It's fine, but there is more film in there somewhere, begging to get out of the mirror that this is.