Too much cute humor and a lackluster story

Rating: 6/10 (16 March 2007)

Zodiac, the story of the famous Zodiac killer, is perhaps Fincher's weakest film yet. Despite a great opening scene set to Three Dog Nights "Easy to be Hard", the film works toward an anti-climatic ending. The computer effects are overdone, used mostly to lapse the long periods of time that take place between the activity of the Zodiac killer. At a point in the film, our focus turns to the quest of a cartoonist who becomes obsessed with finding out who the Zodiac is. We're often left questioning if he himself is the Zodiac. Unfortunately, the story is all over the place, switching between the many character's ongoing and interconnected quests to solve the puzzle of the Zodiac's identity. The fear of the Zodiac was that he could have been anybody, and this selling point was hardly addressed. There are plenty of plot holes, unexplained character reactions, and unexplained events as well. And of course, the computer graphics were mostly unnecessary. Fincher's style is only present in a few well done scenes, leaving most of the photography as boring and repetitive series of medium and close shots. This basically mirrors the story, repetitive and a bit boring. However, the opening sequence is one to remember, and the film deserves merit for being a notch above most Hollywood films... dare I say than "The Departed"? All in all, I'll give it a 6 out of 10. Not good enough to buy, but not bad enough to write off David Fincher as one of the last hopes for the industry.