What a waste of money...

Rating: 1/10 (25 June 2009)

Thats what i thought after I finished watching the movie and the very few extras on DVD. Action movies are not famed for their deep meanning. But usually there is a basic plot justifying the action. Well not here. Its not just the lack of a believable plot (even in the action Hollywood context), but also the absurdity of it. A fraternity of assassins dated back to Middle Age, with highly trained personel and high-tech equipment, kills targets dangerous to the world safety and order. The problem is that the decision about who is dangerous for the world, is extracted by analysing the fabric produced by a ''devine'' weaving machine, based in an old factory resembling a castle.
Its not just idiotic but impressively dangerous idea the one passed around here. It tells us that extremely capable and intelligent persons take as granted everything a ''divine authority''tells them. Nobody questions the procedure. They just do what the voice of fate tells them for the good of mankind. Who wrote that thing George Bush? They don't even explain how the magic machine came up and why it isn't a medieval one, but industrial age, model.
The only good thing was McAvoy imo. I think he fitted the role. Angelina was there just for the label. But the plot was so weak and absurd that not even her legs could save it. I wont get at all into the clichés ''son against father'' but i would like to comment that the extermination of the arch villain is presented along the ending title sequence as something trivial.
Some scenes were shot in Prague. The fraternity castle-factory ones. The art director explained the trouble they went into covering the European type brickwalls with rubber American type ones. The attention to little details in the CGI creation of backgrounds. As a graphic designer im always fascinated by these things. But this time i felt so sorry for the art crue. They got into all this detail chase for a movie that had not the most basic thing. A sound storyline.