More Marv, Less Dwight

Rating: 6/10 (23 April 2005)

Black and white and flat. The most striking movie I've seen in a long time - applying the "Sky Captain" approach but with an end result that is, fortunately, neither as inane as SK:TWoT, nor does it star Jude Law...
The cast was star-studded but underutilised. The "Big Fat Kill" section of the movie was definitely the weakest (except for the scenes between Del Toro and Clive Owen) and could have been left out entirely. Hartigan and Marv are the best characters - their stories, developed in more detail, could have made for a satisfyingly cool and gritty movie. The decision to include a story arc that concluded with a campy hookers-with-guns shoot-out, and with Dwight describing Gail as his 'warrior woman', was unfortunate. As much as I usually enjoy Clive Owen, and even given that this was a comic-book movie, I still couldn't decide whether to laugh or cringe at those lines - they sounded like Fabio should be delivering them. It didn't jive with the bitter loser stories of Hartigan and Marv, two very different characters dealing with the same sort of Roark-related problems. More Marv, less Dwight please, Mr. Rodriguez.
I enjoyed spotting the cameos. Nearly missed Rutger Hauer; was told in advance that Elijah Wood was Kevin, but still got a kick out of seeing 'Frodo' as a murderous cannibal geek - what Hannibal Lecter would have been if he had grown up listening to Wheezer ;)