Potential not realized

Rating: 6/10 (11 May 2014)

The story and plot had potential that was not completely realized. The action was good - 8 - liked the POV/First person shots and camera moves. The acting was modest - 6.5. The character's dialogue was pretty good most of the time, witty, sharp - 7 but when it failed it was a 2, and it failed at critical times. The dialogue (and acting) really fell short during the dramatic emotional scenes. A lot of close-ups and teary-eyed emotional scenes that hit the same note and seemed trite. The characters said exactly what they thought, spilling their guts with no subtlety -- dialogue was too head on. The characters ultimately came off as shallow. The story got long and seemed to wander at the end becoming as much about setting up the next movie as satisfying it's potential. More time could have been spent making the characters compelling. It was soap opera acting/dialogue/story with top-shelf Hollywood special effects. Not enough for me.