Waste of time historical thriller with no thrill

Rating: 1/10 (1 March 2007)

I saw a screening of this film and couldn't have been more disappointed. If you need a spoiler warning to know that the Zodiac was NEVER caught and this movie gives NO New info, then I would like to welcome you to Planet Earth. I am not a Fincher basher. He moved from Music Videos to movies and struck GOLD with Se7en, one of my favs, and Fight Club. Nowhere to go but down for him and it has been a gradual free fall that seems to have hit bottom. Not to say the film didn't look nice. No complaints to Finchers direction. His decision to try to show in nearly 3 hours what could have been a nice 1 or 2 hour A&E special was his mistake. I have no problem with this movie sticking as much as it could to straight facts but don't come at us with a Hollywood release if you are not going to show us some Hollywood. The thought really passed through my head whether or not it would be disrespectful to just leave about 2 hours into it. The problems with a Zodiac movie are plentiful:
1. It remains unsolved so there is no viewpoint of the killer. Any attempt at this would defeat the by-the-facts approach.
2. All the facts of the murders are pretty well known. No surprises in-store for the audience.
3. The prime suspect, Leigh Allen, is now dead as well and never admitted to being Zodiac. In fact, I even think he was the Zodiac but no forensic proof was ever connected to him. The end credits do mention that he did not match a DNA from the letters that had been licked to seal them.
4. Contact from the Zodiac was so far apart chronologically that this film had to fade to black and then jump forward in time so often that I felt I was reading a subtitled film there were so many times and places at the bottom of the screen.
5. The movie doesn't even know when to end. It just keeps going and going and going. Fincher should have tried for 3 and a half hours and included Allen's death and the time he was confronted by cameras at his house. I have seen the footage of that and it was creepier than anything in this movie.
6. The zodiac caused disruption and chaos to many lives all over but we only get to see a drugged/drunk reporter, a cartoonist that gets and loses his whole family life, and two cops. One who transfers and the other that is addicted to animal crackers. Fincher doest make us care or really feel for these characters.
Why was this movie advertised like it was going to move like some thriller? Shameful use of the basement scene to inject some drama and tension. It was far too late into the movie to think that there was some revelation coming. The facts are the facts, no matter how boring they look on the big screen. In FROM HELL, The Hughes Brothers/Johnny Depp look at Jack the Ripper, they used true events and people while presenting some of that case's theories. ZODIAC beats the theory presented to death for well over two hours and doesn't get the audience any closer to the identity of the killer. At least Dirty Harry's Scorpio, who does make an appearance, was tangible and got it in the end. Zodiac is only interpreted through his letters and killings without a resolution. No More, No Less.
I recommend Fight Club and Se7en for Fincher
I recommend Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and A Scanner Darkly for Downey,Jr
I recommend Donnie Darko and Jarhead for Gyllenhaal
I recommend that EVERYONE misses this one.