One of the best of 2009 and i'll tell you why. Id be a liar if I sat here and told you Peter Jackson was the reason I gave this movie 8 out of 10 stars, but at the end of the day the cast just pulled through, they undeniably molded together to make this a very enjoyable experience. Im going to answer some questions I'm sure some of you are dying to know the answer to.
Does Peter Jackson go a little heavy on the CGI? Yes, yes he does, but what do expect when its Peter Jackson filming a dream like state give the guy a break.
Does Mark Wahlberg phone it in as usual? Surprisingly no, his role as a father trying to cope with the lost of his daughter is performed wonderfully. Personally I think this his best showing since Boogie Nights.
How does old Pete do with the scenes, not involving special effects? A lot better then one would expect, the story gets choppy in some spots and there are also scenes and characters that are just plain unnecessary, its sort of like Unforgiven in the way it sometimes takes a rest stop at some unnecessary junctions, and frankly i can think of about 20 minutes of footage that could be cut from this film, which is the main reason its probably so harshly frowned upon by mainstream critics.
Who is the best actor in the movie? Without a doubt Saoirse Ronan she actually makes a lot of the other actors look stale in comparison, she is just so alive in every scene and is in my opinion the best actor under 18 hell probably under 23 in the world today.
Wat are the movies main downfalls? Peter Jackson seems lost some times, and this kind of movie is a stretch for the poor guy, so yes the direction is shoddy but far from the massacre people are making it out to be. Also Rachel Weisz phoned it in for the most part, i mean god help her she tries but at the end of the day she just doesn't cut it, also even though she did great in her role Susan Sarandon's character is border line unnecessary, as well as the aforementioned 20 minutes of scenes that seem to be useless filler at best.
So why did you give it an 8/10 again? Easy it does what it sets out to do and does it beautifully sure there is this and that one could nit pick about, but at the end of the day all the pieces fall into place to tell a great story that explores the depths of every aspect of mankind from the innocent, to the mad, to the confused, to the evil its all here, and even though it might not be flawlessly executed it sure as hell is pretty captivating.
Thanks for reading, Ed.