Great Potential - Great Cast - Poor Directing

Rating: 4/10 (30 December 2007)

This movie has everything except good directing. Paul Greengrass, the director, mistakes (lots of) camera motion for action. He turned a great concept - the third in a series, with great actors, into a blurry, stomach-sickening, not-so-thrilling, roller-coaster ride. It is as if he did not trust his excellent cast to act and preferred instead to have the camera operators create the action - often during scenes that begged for a still camera.
This is really a shame, it reduced a potentially great movie into an OK film, but it succeeds marginally despite the direction and camera work, certainly not because of it. He is lucky that lots of kids like the motion or this film would not have been a success at the box office. If Greengrass continues down this road, I predict he will find early retirement on his agenda.
Watch it on a small screen if you are subject to motion sickness.