Advertised as thrilling, but it's pretty much just a biopic...

Rating: 7/10 (10 October 2017)

The Lost City of Z is a movie about a British man at the beginning of a 20th century who goes to expedition in Bolivia, but finds more than he was looking for and that grows into an obsession. It stars Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland. Judging by the trailers, it looked like a grounded and thrilling adventure movie, but it's really not that. It's pretty much just a biopic, actually.
I knew that it's based on a true story, but I thought it was a bit more fictionalized version of it. Maybe it really is, I don't know. But if it is, then it could have been a lot better. As you see, I don't know some of the facts about the movie. That's because the movie didn't grip me enough to actually be interested in all that. It's well-shot, extremely well-acted (particularly by Hunnam and Holland) and it does have it's interesting moments, but with the bad pacing and aside from the main character and some of his family no one is really developed. So I couldn't really connect to the characters. For example, Robert Pattinson's character is a large part of the story, but do you know much about him? Not really.
The movie does have this character arc for the lead and I liked that, but I still feel it was a bit overlong. Not all of it felt really necessary, but there were some really emotional moments with the characters that actually were developed and those at least felt kinda earned.
While it can get interesting, it's sluggish pace and some flat characters make it less exciting than it should have been. But there are also some beautiful moments that make up for it.