Tarantino Brings Us a Dialog Driven Mystery

Rating: 6/10 (31 December 2015)

First we had the character-drama Slow West, then the horror-western Bone Tomahawk, and finally Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. This one being the most 'grand' in scale and certainly the most well put together. This is one of the year's better movies which is a nice mix of western justice and cabin fever. You can easily see the influence The Thing (my favorite movie) had on this movie (which Tarantino had the crew watch before making the film).
There is a lot to like here from strong characters to dark cynical humor, everything you expect from a Tarantino movie. The introductions are a tad slow, but once you hear everyone's story you then can start to piece together who is lying and who is telling the truth. And the action this time around is nice and swift verses other stories where violence is more of a storyteller (Kill Bill). This is what makes The Hateful Eight so foreboding, once you realize how swift the action is it really antes up the tension. Not to mention the dialog carries a lot of the weight, we get to see the characters analyze other characters based on their responses to certain situations. Which is bittersweet in my eyes, I personally would have liked more physical puzzles/clues, but with Tarantino, the puzzles are hidden within the dialog.
Which brings me to my main gripe with the movie, the mystery the story presents us with. It's engrossing and intriguing but, unfortunately, too brief. The Hateful Eight builds up this idea about someone not being who they claim to be and then in an instant we are given the solution to the mystery. Just when things start to get interesting as to who killed who, boom, resolution (to the mystery, not the movie itself). The movie should have played out a bit more like Clue or Gone Girl, keeping us guessing while presenting new clues as the mystery builds to its apex. But here it is all too brief. That's not to say it ruined the movie, what we are given is still juicy enough to keep you entertained most of the time, it just could have been a bit more of a guessing game when all is said and done.
Though I did like the movie quite a bit and would place it in the middle of Tarantino's filmography, I have to admit I was slightly let down. That, of course, being because I expected more of a one-by-one-they-all-die mystery. But that sure as hell didn't ruin the movie. It's fun, intriguing, and, of course, over-the-top violent when the script calls for it.