Let's not blame the director too much

Rating: 2/10 (30 July 2004)

This could have been a great film of its type: good story, good script, great music; adequate acting - but oh that camera work! Good enough for a commercial or an MTV video but in a thriller I would like to see shots last longer than one and a half seconds: some of them are even shorter. The quick editing is used in the action sequences, of course, and whilst fast editing isn't a bad thing it would be nice to give us a break from it once in a while so we could, at least, see some of the action. There are stunt people risking their lives in this movie and the audience doesn't get a chance to see them. The biggest worry would be if too many people like it and it becomes the norm!! There is a scene at the end in a Russian apartment  and I won't give anything away  which is supposed to be a tender scene which doesn't work. No need for that scene; it lacked pace and direction. It's a shame because director Paul Greengrass's previous film, Bloody Sunday, was brilliant. I can't really see the studio letting the director have his head and using so much coverage on the action scenes with multi-camera set ups, hand held cameras, steady-cams and so on and then giving it to an editor and letting him do what he likes, without knowing; so the studio was obviously in on the style of this film from the get go - so let's not blame the director too much.