It felt more like a made for T.V. special on PBS rather than a real film

Rating: 7/10 (5 August 2007)

When it comes to making a film based on an event like the "Zodiac killer", there comes a question in which most filmmakers ask themselves, "Should the film be more factual or more fictional?" Hand's down, this movie is by far more fact than fiction! David Fincher, best known for "Seven" and "Panic Room" brings to life the chain events, covering over a twenty year time frame, of the five vicious murders that happened in the four districts of Western California. The movie goes in-depth with police detectives who investigated the crimes, and the reporters who queried and tried to seek the actual killer. The ensemble cast of Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhall, Robert Downey Jr., and Anthony Edwards are excellent.
The combination of the accurate stories and the cast members make a great film, but "Zodiac" needed more than that. It needed a thrilling pace like "Panic Room". The first hour of the film was steady, but after that, the film dragged and drifted from different scenes about prank callers, kooks on the street who claim their the "Zodiac killer", and far-fetched theories that both the police and the news reporters try to figure out with absolutely no luck.
I grew very bored. For awhile, I felt like was watching a "made for T.V. special on PBS" rather than a movie. However, the last twenty minutes of the film followed into the suspense that Mr. Fincher is very well known for and he managed to tie a fair amount of the knots at the end, leaving some plot holes. I honestly felt there wasn't enough mysterious drama or suspense to make the movie a real good thriller.
7/10