Wiggle my big middle finger

Rating: Null/10 (18 April 2004)

Not cool.
There is power in things that are implicit, and when portrayed artfully, more powerful then things explicit.
There is no reason for all the gross violence in this movie, and it's largely unattractive. Explicitly showing violence, especially constantly throughout a film, is a serious cop-out.
I don't particularly find that artistic, entertaining, or shocking, more than I find it largely discomforting and somewhat insulting.
I don't care about the gushing blood, or even the flying limbs. Fine. But this movie was just gross.
In order for a director to be able to pull off such a bold depiction of violence, there would have to be a largely substantial plot to back this up.

There was none. The movie was about fighting people. That's all. The action sequences had at least 100 times more content then the story-line. You'd think this would make for a very intense movie. Yes, it is intense. But not captivating. I love being uncomfortable when watching a movie - it's great, that means you're involved in it. But this movie made me uncomfortable in a way that I didn't want to continue watching it.
Perhaps that was the intention. Fine. I just don't like paying money to watch people get murdered. It's boring, and a total cop-out. Well, not a total cop-out; civilians weren't pointlessly killed, which is good.

Other then that, the movie was very stunning visually. It was definately a treat to watch, in that regard. That really long steady-cam shot which started out (in a restaurant?) and followed Uma through the entire building then back to the same spot; that was fantastic.
But the whole movie was plastic, fake, utterly pointless, and well - annoying.