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Rating: 3/10 (17 December 2019)

Dreadful waste of talent (both in front of and behind the camera) and material and one of the most disappointing films that I have watched compared to my expectations.
Perhaps the jungle photography and some of the period costumes come out of this effort with the most credit....but all other departments are lacking.
One question that I had was how come this films version of Fawcett was a cartographer and surveyor and therefore deemed appropriate to send on exploratory expeditions into the un-mapped unknown?
I really couldn't understand that. So I had to check that out afterwards and the answer explains a great deal about how this film was so badly botched.
The factual Fawcett was an officer in the British Army artillery. Which meant that he was required and trained by the army in all the disciplines necessary to lay artillery barrages. Skills and techniques directly transferable to the explorer-surveyor and a direct explanation as to how he would be deemed suitable to participate in surveying expeditions and, from that stage on, a full blown explorer.
Instead here in 'The Lost City of Z' there is no link made to a real, tactile, believable military environment for Fawcett. No convincing context for him to exist as we are meant to believe that he does.
Clearly, I would posit, this redrawing of the man's military heritage was done so as to enable him to fight, with line infantry, on the front line trenches of the WWI western front. This is the most famous part of that conflict with the general audience and it affords a great chance to place our protagonist in extreme harms way back in his "normal life", his European homeland.
This is low hanging fruit in terms of dramatic art and causes any semblance of believability to depart the picture in the long run when you consider that this film is attempting to portray the literal and meta journeys of the character Fawcett.
Had the 'The Lost City of Z' retained a more accurate military background for its protagonist then a far more interesting journey for our hero would have been sustained. The skills that have latterly made him a journey-er have caused him to be added to the battlefield carnage of a European generation.
It would also have generated a more interesting angle on covering the combat of this conflict: indeed what is little known by the wider public is the truly astonishing level of expansion of field and siege artillery forces on the western front; with prodigious quantities of resource and manpower dedicated to this military arm by 1918's war end. This would again lead us closer to a telling of the story of the man Fawcett, in his time and place in this film, with all the potential for more resonant and powerfully dramatic situations that a more realised protagonist affords thoughtful dramas.
Instead unbelievable, non-contemporaneous ideas and motifs are utilised to illuminate character interactions and "help" us learn our characters for ourselves. I learnt that I didn't remotely believe that any of these characters had, or could, exist as portrayed here.
As a last point to reinforce this, the real Fawcett disappeared on his final expedition accompanied by his son and his sons best friend. Now that sounds so real. So 1920's British. It could easily fit into any fictional tale originating from that very world. So 'muddle through'. So amateurish. So clubish. Essentially it sounds likely true to its time.
This film decides to take the easy decision and omits the sons best friend. Because it would convolute and distract from a conventional and convenient father/son narrative.
Altogether disappointing considering the level of critical acclaim earned. The film seems to pay homage to other sources, quite obvious film sources, rather than find an illuminatingband involving treatment of the actual source material: Percy Fawcett and his real happenings.
The Lost City of Z is not totally without merit but I can only raise a 3/10 score myself; acting is competent but never convinces that these are people being portrayed by actors rather than actors playing characters that could be anyone; direction and editing lack thrust and nuances; music and sound design are unremarkable; creative decisions and writing were disagreeable to me but as I say, photography and costumes were quite easy to appreciate.