Don't waste your time

Rating: 3/10 (28 January 2006)

I can't get over the terrific reviews this movie got and all the positive comments in this site. I found this movie to be ponderous. Way too long. Way too heavy. Way too repetitive. Way too boring. It's depressing, dark, hopeless, and pointless.
Watching Bana struggle with his angst for over 2 hours was almost more than I could take. I hung in there to the end, though, hoping for a satisfying ending. Instead I got a ridiculous sex scene where our "hero" is envisioning gruesome murders while in the act. Sure, I know it was symbolic of something or other, but by the time we got to it, I was too bored to care.
Also, our "hero" is a glamorized murderer. He knows it, even if Goeffrey Rush does his best to justify it in the name of national security. Sound familiar?
Then we have the cinematography that everyone is raving about. I found the washed out, grainy texture, and artsy lighting totally at odds with the realistically gruesome death scenes that littered this movie. After you've seen the first few heads blow apart, and smoke rising from the bullet riddled bodies, it gets a bit old. It wasn't as drawn out as in Saving Private Ryan, but you can tell he used the same special effects people.
I guess I'm just not hip or cool enough to really appreciate this movie, but I wonder how many of the people who are gushing over it would do so if the director's name wasn't Spielberg. Spielberg has been taking himself way too seriously ever since he had such success with Schindler's list. That was a masterpiece, and I have the feeling he keeps trying to equal it or better it with his subsequent films. It just ain't happening.
One final note. There was a much better take on these events in the 1986 movie "Sword of Gideon". It was based on the same book with the same characters and story, but without the preaching.