A bit overrated, though quite decent movie

Rating: 6/10 (14 August 2016)

The cinematography was pretty great, the score did a good job setting the tone of the movie, and the presentation and execution (pun intended) of the cartel felt realistic though at times a bit too Hollywood-y and dumb (why the corpse house?). And those are the highlights of the movie for me. Story telling wise, the overall pacing felt a bit forced, or even boring, at times. There are some scenes which are expected to be fast paced, feeling reinforced by the editing, yet are going in the opposite direction.
The main issue I have is with some of the characters.
Emily Blunt's character (FBI agent Kate Macer) ended up being so annoying and nagging in her idealism of the world and law enforcement that it lowered the quality of the movie for me. I don't really believe the character learned something new from her journey, except that breaking the rules is bad, though she already knew that since she is a FBI agent.
The crooked cop (and his family) felt a bit disposable and underdeveloped. The same could be said about Benicio del Toro's character (Alejandro) which really seems to be out of place (or too omnipotent).
The climax of the movie did not seem to be the logical conclusion to the events that took place before it, and seems to be here just to further Emily Blunt's character nonsensical behavior.
In any case, I think this is a pretty decent movie, though the director's previous movies were a lot better.