ShoogaSlim posted:

saw this last night in LA and went in with super high expectations since Fincher is my favorite director. he has some big swing-and-miss movies for me, but when he hits, he tends to knock it out of the park.

my expectations were, kinda sorta met but not really. basically, the movie works on a moment to moment cadence; each scene is gripping and i felt myself getting lost in the moment very often. but when the narrative takes a step back to remind you that there's an overarching point to it all, i'm reminded that there doesn't feel like there's a whole lot to grab onto when looked at from a wide angle.

i have a lot to say about this and i don't want to do random spoiler blocks, so i'll just spoil the entire rest of the post. don't read it unless you don't care about ending details, nitpicks, and specific praise.


the female romantic interest character is introduced but only barely. she's a plot device to provide the killer with motivation to go kill some "bad" people. we're never told why they're bad or why they are responsible for what happened. we're told by the killer that he has a strict set of rules he lives by in order to be the best at what he does, and part of that includes not taking anything personally and not trusting anyone. meanwhile the entire movie's plot hinges on him seeking out revenge for taking something personally bc he screwed up the job he's supposed to be so good at. it's disjointed thinking about it from an overview perspective.

each time the chapter changes and the killer is in a new city hunting down a new person, i found myself wrapped up in his craft and commitment and eagerly waiting to see how he would carry out his work. but then in between chapters i'm left thinking "why is he doing this?" even though i know why he's doing it, but i just don't feel the draw narratively.

the thing i keep bouncing around in my mind is something like: the killer is supposed to be meticulous and perfect, but we see him botch the mark in the beginning. then he goes out and gets revenge on all the people responsible for the attack on his love interest, and he proves that he's actually capable of doing the things he talked about. in the end, he spares the client. why? was all of this some ploy/excuse to get rid of the people in the organization that would come after him if he just wanted to quit regularly? was all of this some setup and part of his perfect plan all along? either that or he supposedly found empathy in the end? the latter feels less probably than the former, but the movie doesn't put any work into giving us a good idea of which (or neither) it might be.

as for a filmmaking perspective, the sound design is good, but there's one part where the killer is in a car and scratches his chin. it's really just a trivial detail but the foley sound is so loud compared to the quiet of everything else going on it felt like huge overkill. mostly, it's very good otherwise. ever since trent and and ross worked with fincher on the social network, i've been waiting for them to raise the bar on that soundtrack, but here the music is subdued and not that noticeable. it definitely adds to the atmosphere, but it doesn't ever really amplify or take center stage like it did in TSN. i would love it if they experimented a bit more, but it's good/serviceable anyway.

last thing i guess are the weird choices like showing a floating screen of the killer searching for key fob copiers in the last act, and showing a screen of google maps a bit earlier. these are used effectively but they seem out of place when only done these two times. it probably might have been overkill if they did it more often, but i feel like it should have been an all or nothing commitment. they could have done it with the gym check-in screen, maybe some of his logins with various aliases at hotels and car rentals, etc. if you're gonna use a gimmick, use it.

the fight scene in florida is top notch, and i loved the single shot cuts that went from day to night and vice versa showing a single image but, like, 12 hours elapsed. that really sold the process.