This film is about as exciting as...

Rating: 1/10 (10 December 2004)

...spending an evening de-scaling your kettle, or, dare I say, clipping the toenails of you and your entire family (including grandparents).
I went to see this film to see what the fuss was all about. The storyline is entirely predictable, even to those who have never read the comic books. I would put it into the ever growing category of films with a poor storyline, poor acting, but with expensive and overblown special effects whose aim is to disguise the film-maker's total lack of imagination.
The only reason people tend to give for liking this film is the special effects. Unfortunately, this kind of effects can be seen in pretty much all the action films that come off Hollywood's conveyor belt of uninspired, unimaginative junk these days.
I hate to sound like a miserable old man, even though I'm only twenty eight, but it seems that film-makers these days know they don't need to go to much effort to make a successful film. They need just need a predictable story-line with a happy ending, and a clunky, corny script. They then pay an enormous amount of money for some passé special effects, knowing that they will still make a fortune at the box-office due to over-hype and the hordes of witless westerners who are too stupid to appreciate any film which is remotely challenging.
I know I am not comparing like with like, but films such as It's A Wonderful Life, Casablanca, The Wicker Man, The Shawshank Redemption and Leon (off the top of my head) are superb stories with engaging characters and good acting. None of these aspects seem important anymore. Just throw in a load of special effects and you'll make a fortune. Moreover, why does every remotely successful film have a sequel these days? I'll tell you why; to make even more cash. And the sequels tend to be even worse than the first film. If It's A Wonderful Life had been made fifty years later, we would have definitely seen an It's A Wonderful Life 2 and 3. It's not about creating a great moment in cinematic history; it's all about making oodles of cash.
Rant over.