Subpar

Rating: Null/10 (22 July 2009)

Public Enemies was everything I thought that it would be, Johnny Depp in an action movie. However it was not everything that I really wanted it to be. It felt to me like the film was rushed, as if Michael Mann was falling behind schedule and assigned a hand-held shot for everything that hadn't been filmed yet. The audio was also pretty sketchy, which took away from the experience. These elements along with the HD Video made it feel like I was watching a student film at times. In a way the HD Video adds to the fact that the story being shown is true, seeing as the film's look doesn't have that Hollywood feel to it, though I feel that its not as appealing when movies don't have that professional touch to it.
As for the screenplay, I was also a bit disappointed. It felt like the only goal was to make Dillinger look like a badass, and just forget about the rest of the character. This is proved when Dillinger says, "I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars... and you. What else you need to know?" I feel that there would be more than that to the real John Dillinger, but maybe I'm wrong.
It might sound contradicting to what I've just said, but overall I enjoyed Public Enemies. It was a great film with a great cast, and it kept me interested for the majority of the film. Though long, I didn't "feel" the 2.5 hours like I did during movies such as Transformers 2 and Benjamin Button. It moves along beautifully, not spending much time dragging anything on for longer than it should. Even if you already know what ends up happening to Dillinger, seeing the movie is definitely worth it. Visually the film is amazing, particularly a shoot out scene which stands high above the rest of the film. And Johnny Depp kicks some ass, reason enough to go see it.