Overrated and empty

Rating: 5/10 (18 November 2010)

I have been expecting so much more from this movie. While this movie doesn't disappoint me in the usual way Hollywood does. It is not extraordinary silly, nor cheesy - but nonetheless, it still has one of those really bad Hollywood endings. But the worst is, and this really destroyed the movie for me: The characters. There is 0 depths in them. Jonny Depp was nothing but cool. No fear - barely any humanity was given to this character. So I couldn't feel any sympathy for him. The whole movie was making an empty, dull impression on me. It didn't convince me in any way, not historical and not emotional.
The Action: Those constant repetitive gunfights bored, and even annoyed me. I usually don't dislike shaky cams, but in this movie I did. I often didn't like the angle from which this movie has been shot. I even disliked the cutaway in a lot of scenes. I might have to over- think my opinion of Michael Mann.
The atmosphere was another thing that I really disliked about the movie. With all the money they had, and the awesome set they have been able to use, this movie could have created an awesome 30's atmosphere. - But, it sadly didn't. The camera they have been using was a digital one. The movie sometimes looked like an absolute B-Movie. Colors lacked warmth and everything looked artificial. One of the worst things for me, has been the jazz-music. It didn't add any emotional weight to any scene. - At max it added some "coolness" feeling to the movie. Something I personally didn't find fitting. Atmosphere wasn't created by the jazz- music at all. It was as cold, as the movie looked. Only in the end, they used a good musical score - too bad that the ending was cheesy and not fitting to the rest of the movie.