This world is flat

Rating: 5/10 (17 August 2017)

For the story this film was based on it comes across as flat and boring. From the dull performance and stiff delivery of the lead character as he tried too hard to do the accent, to the unimpressive cinematography and locations, this was nowhere near as entertaining as it should have been. And it wasn't like it was without budget. The WW1 scenes and the UK period crowd scenes couldn't have been cheap and easy to stage, so why not plow the same effort into the jungle scenes, where the whole point of the wonder and awe of the story is about? They actually went to the Jungle, why not find some decent shots while you're there? Robert Patterson did deliver a good performance, and the last 20 mins was halfway decent possibly just because the mood was set as mysterious and disorientating via some finally decent music choices. There were quite a few clichÃ© clunker lines and dilemmas in the film, you know the sort of thing, class issues, gender stereotypes, war pep talks, my eyes rolled every time one came along and it added to my non enjoyment of the film. We expect more in modern cinema. Overall the story just wasn't told that well. Things that could have been dramatic were delivered in confusing ways and just sailed off having left no mark. It's got to come down to director and co writer James Gray unfortunately. Disappointed that this wasn't a good watch. It should have been.