Well, I liked watching this movie but at the same time I still have to say that it isn't anything too special really.
A Danny Boyle movie is generally speaking always something unique and unusual. He can pick a movie in a specific genre and completely turn it into something different from any other genre movie. He truly has his own unique style, that has also been proved to be a successful one, which eventually earned him an Oscar in 2009, for his movie "Slumdog Millionaire", which funny enough still happens to be my least favorite movie done by Boyle. So yes, at least I still liked this movie better than "Slumdog Millionaire" but having said that, there is little about this movie that screams out 'brilliant' or 'a must-see'.
The movie is still an unique and original one in its own way but I wish that it's originality would have also resulted in a more engaging movie. The problem is that the story in itself is a very straightforward one and you could even say this is an one note movie, that has plenty of twists and turns in it still but even that starts to work against the movie after a while. It actually gets kind of annoying after a while, once the movie keeps on presenting new 'truths', right till the very end. After a while you just don't know what to believe anymore, which eventually results in you not carrying about it anymore neither. Or at least that's what happened for me.
The movie definitely runs out of steam, about 15 minutes before it reaches its conclusion. Really, they made things too hard on themselves and they tried a bit too hard to turn this movie into something surprising and unpredictable. The movie was fine enough as it was during its first half, so why turn things around and over complicate your movie, during its other half? It's a shame really. It doesn't make the movie a horrible one but it so obviously could have been a much better one, with some minor and more simplistic story additions and alterations.
But really, no point in sounding too negative about this movie, fore I most definitely still liked it good enough. Once you think about it, it's actually quite an accomplishment that the movie never starts to drag or repeat itself, even though it has a very straightforward main concept, set at just a handful of different locations and has only few characters in it. But this perhaps should have come as no surprise, knowing that Danny Boyle has done this before with some of his movies in this past already ("127 Hours", "Sunshine").
It also has a great visual and directing style to it, that's stylized but never over-stylized, in that sense that it's starting too distract from the movie as well. The editing besides works out pleasantly for the movie and helps to keep its pace high at all times.
I'm still always doubtful about seeing James McAvoy playing leading roles. He's of course not a bad actor, just not really leading man kind of material in my opinion, unless the role is absolutely right for him. And this movie hasn't changed that really. He does a good job with his role but a more charismatic and likable type of actor could have potentially lifted the role- and the overall movie, up a notch. I was more fond of Vincent Cassel in this movie really and he was playing the main 'villain'. I think it should tell you enough that I felt more involved- and was more interested in the movie its bad guy.
It's a good movie, just not one that is going to win any big awards anywhere.
7/10
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