Reviews

Well, it is. But it isn't worth a 2.7/10!

I shall get to the point. Steel is abominably written, poorly acted (with the exception of Richard Roundtree, who for some reason actually tries) and shabbily directed. Surely then, it is a bad film?

WELL.

I have just finished watching "Now You See Me", and it really helped me to understand that a film being objectively "good" or otherwise is not the same as it being an enjoyable experience. I can still watch Steel and even while laughing at it, can really get into it. Say what you will about its writing, the writer at least didn't get ahead of himself - didn't go writing some deep, intricate epic without any skill to back it up. Say what you will also (and please, I encourage this one) about Shaq's acting which, especially in the army scenes at the start of the film, is unstoppably dire. But he's never required to do something which puts the weight of the film on the subtleties in his performance (Shaquille O'Neal as Oskar Schindler?).

I probably don't make myself very clear here but, simply put, if you take the film for what it is it's still possible to enjoy it. It's functional, if nothing more, which is not something I would say happily about "Now You See Me". I also love the theme tune that's pretty much just the latter half of the 20th century mashed into one big brassfest. At the end of the cliché, I had fun watching it and you can't tell me I didn't.

"Eat the hot-dog. Don't be one."

I note that three people worked on this script. It's a real shame they never thought to actually meet each other and nobody told which kind of film they were supposed to be making.

The film starts okay, and continues being okay for a good third of its runtime with some nicely done sequences. Then it starts to go downhill and I immediately started worrying that its vast ego was going to get in the way of a good story. Spoiler, it did.

The plotpoints were pulled from a hat. I cannot think of any other way this story could have come together. Numerous scenes have little to no purpose and seem so out of place they could be from a completely different film. There are two plot twists that happen within a minute of each other towards the end that are both astoundingly nonsensical, as they go directly against the tone of the entire film - rendering a potentially decent climax utterly useless as the writers (probably completely unselfconsciously) demonstrate that they don't have anything like the skill required for what they've set up and just decide to throw reveals, dramatic music and camera sweeps into the bucket and hope to bob you don't notice that none of it makes any sense.

It is a watchable film, I'll give it that, but I really really tried to turn my brain off only to find my spinal cord telescoping with shock at the unbelievable number of plot holes. I wouldn't definitely not recommend it, but be prepared that it it really seriously, seriously stupid.

If the writers are reading this I might suggest they be a little more realistic about their abilities next time.