Decent but failed to live up to its potential.

Rating: 6/10 (24 October 2015)

I had high hopes for this movie and, while it largely lived up to them, I felt there were some glaring flaws that could've easily been avoided, which would've resulted in a superior film. For one, Antoine Fuqua did a mediocre job with the directing role. It almost felt like he had never directed a film in his entire life, found a list of all the cool camera tricks, angles, and cinematic effects, and felt compelled to include each and every one of them. How did this impact the movie? It made it seem as though it lacked any identity whatsoever. Secondly, there is a critical moment in the final major conflict resolution that is just terrible. To avoid spoilers, let's just say that the protagonist that had been established throughout the film makes a decision that he would never make. That, combined with the plot getting a little out of hand, made the last quarter or so of the movie hard to swallow. It wasn't all bad, however, as the rating should reflect. The acting was great and fighting sequences were done incredibly well. The build up and initial character and plot development were fantastic too. Unfortunately this film suffered from having a director who wanted to do everything instead of making a great movie.