Reviews

Supposedly a heroic epic, this film lands a bit short of everything it intends to accomplish. Highly sophisticated motion capture technique was supposed to bring real world actors' facial expressions to a new level in animation, but what did they achieve? Good resemblance, but nothing more. There is absolutely nothing in their faces, no pain, no anger, angst, or even genuine smiles. The film itself could have been entertaining but instead was boring from the first minute. Also, the dialogues were tremendously stupid - and please remember that we are talking here about one of the most widely studied artifacts in anglosaxon literary. Maybe, if you are willing to forget everything that was told around this film and simply take it as another animated film, you will like it - I would not bet on it, though. I am really sorry I am so negative; I was very much looking forward to seeing this movie but was disappointed in every possible way

This is a film that clearly deserves two votes, one for the acting and the quality of the film as a film and one for the very questionable ethical questions that had me leaving the theater shaking my head. Jodie Foster plays excellent and her fears and her desperation get to your bones. Many scenes have her face fill out the complete screen which makes it even more intense. Her "opponent", the detective who is played by Terrence Howard, is equally brilliant and the two of them convey the atmosphere very good. Of course, it is easy to understand her desire to protect herself after such an assault, but I am afraid that many people will draw the wrong conclusions when seeing this film. They will start by saying how right they are to have a weapon as they obviously need to protect themselves. The film might deliver the weapon fetishists new arguments and I do not think that it wants to do that. So I would urge the actors and the director to say that vigilante justice is never right and that to carry weapons does not make this world a better place.

Well, OK, I am from Germany and do not know all the characters appearing in this film. Maybe they are stars in the Poker realm, but I wouldn't know. And to be honest, I wouldn't think that I have to know. When I see a movie I expect something to happen and if the action is cut down to a rather non-existing level, then at least I expect the film to be artful and sophisticated. This film is everything but artful. It is a film about Poker, not a bit more. The main character - Eric Bana - plays cards a lot, in fact I can remember only very few scenes where he is not checking, folding, raising, ... The film simply has nothing to offer, so only Poker addicts will probably enjoy it. Well, of course such a film cannot do without a relationship issues, but I am sorry to say, these stay very much on the uninteresting side, everything that is happening is just so plain obvious and predictable.

I can only hope that many people read this warning not to see this film. I personally regard this film as one of the worst I have ever seen!

Honestly, I expected great entertainment by these two great directors, but I was disappointed. Not only were the war scenes much (!) too brutal, but they were also far too dominant to let the personal dilemma that the surviving heroes suffered from shine through.

Why do we have to see heads flying around, limbs torn off, etc.? I would guess that with all the terrible things happening all over the world people are fed up with so much brutality. Of course, it is important to let the audience see that the war changed these guys but I am quite sure that could have been done less cruelly.

And, as if this weren't enough, I had the feeling that the directors also wanted to built a third story around racism. Well, as necessary as I deem this to be in today's life, I do think with this final twist in the story the film went too far.

I heard an interview with the main actor who said that the film was not intended to be a horror movie but he himself would describe it as mental horror. I strongly subscribe to that.

It is not clear why he travels to this place, but everything there is monotonous, no bright colors, no honest smiles, nothing personal. Everything is ordered and everyone seems to be satisfied living this kind of life. Our "hero" though from the beginning seems to be misplaced and feels it himself.

What makes this film so important and good is the remarkable similarity to life in many large cities or even countries nowadays. You have to function, you are not supposed to let your colleague know your weaknesses, you show off on your wealth, your car, etc., and most of all you lack the true love of life that children have. Naturally, in this film you see neither children nor old people - they simply do not fit in a society of strong workers.

I would recommend this film to everyone - and make sure that this utopia does not come true!