Unbalanced in each millisecond

Rating: 5/10 (1 September 2008)

First half of the movie. Super! A heartless killer finally finds his peace in guarding and befriending little girl. Artistic editing worked here, artificially speeding up that would feel like too long and soapy romantic drama otherwise. You know, man being miserable isn't that cool to watch. Not for longer period. This is where editing and cutting worked fine to still maintain atmosphere. Dakota Fanning is a human bomb! She played better than anyone else in this movie. I really took a more comfortable position: everything I've seen so far looked superb and like a really well justified IMDb rating.
Then comes second half... And it's horrible. Like a good movie cut into half and other half replaced with much worse movie. Something from Steven Seagal's "movies that didn't even make to video"-collection?
The action-spoiling editing kills last bit of realism, those microscoping bits that somehow escaped from confusing and seemingly totally random and broken plot that covers action part of the film.
This mountain of a man, filled with hate and sadism, starts cutting off fingers and killing people in really painful ways. The character and plot that was so well built in first half falls apart in seconds. He can afford an RPG but not a Kevlar vest. Even though he already has more bullet holes than it would be healthy for a brick wall. He goes head-to-head with half dozen mobsters and doesn't have a single sniper to support him. Hi-class warrior? Experience in anti-terrorist unit? All we see is a black guy performing on Jackass episode "let's see how many bullets you can survive". Stupid decisions and editing confirm this MTV influence.
I love a good action thriller. I like gore and blood. But then it's must be produced a man who's not picking flowers in his free time. A gruesome killer is one thing a wannabe daddy or love and care is WAY another.
What a letdown. Final conclusion made me angry, but I when girl hugs him as savior, that man who's covered with blood of numerous people he has just killed and tortured, it really felt sick.
I hoped he survives and redeems sadistic half of the movie somehow. Not in this life. Not in this movie. Why did they end it like this? Why build up something decent and then set it on fire, especially if there's absolutely no need to, and the "event" is really a product of not thinking the plot through? I mean, there was zero excuses for protagonist to die. ZERO.
Extremely, extremely disappointing. Because all that power that was put to built into something really valuable - somehow fell apart like a card house. This movie needs a remake with totally different second half.