Good film, terrible direction!

Rating: 2/10 (17 August 2007)

What is wrong with Paul Greengrass? This film has the same frenetic, sloppy feel of its predecessor which considerably takes away from the action. Camera movement can certainly accentuate a moment or scene, but the Greengrass does it, you can't tell what's going on half the time. All the other elements are in place for a good action film, but the director screws it up. I suppose there's a certainly freedom for a director to be able to show up on set with no shot list or storyboards and just be able to instruct his cameraman to just keep the camera moving and get what you can. If two people are fighting and you can't tell who's doing the hitting and who's getting hit...that's bad direction. If there's a car chase and half the time you can't tell who's shooting, crashing or dodging...that's bad direction. I can just imagine the editor being handed the raw footage and thinking "what the hell am I supposed to do with this"! Well, he probably did the best he could. Fire the director!