leif.hellstrom

My expectations were low, but they turned out to be too high just the same.

The film is astonishingly formulaic from start to finish and the writers have taken the safe and predictable route throughout. It feels like a committee product. There is really not a single surprising or really suspenseful moment anywhere in the movie. The story line is simplistic and much of it is just copied from the original Top Gun, while the main mission is a truly embarrassing Star Wars rip-off. There is a mandatory romantic subplot which adds nothing. Many technical details are downright cringe-worthy in their inaccuracy. The acting is mediocre throughout. And Val Kilmer's single scene is just mystifying: it is just bizarre.

Many of the flying scenes are technically well-made but suffer from the usual Hollywood malady of defying the laws of physics and credible aircraft performance. There are only two throttle settings shown: slammed fully on, or slammed fully off. The sequences are often chopped up into tiny little fragments, edited at breakneck speed.

Why, oh why can't Hollywood make a decent flying film anymore?

This is unfortunately another case of a potentially interesting idea that is poorly executed. The basic plot has been described by others and will not be repeated here.

The show suffers from some of the maladies common to Swedish films and TV shows. The main one here is the acute lack of proper pacing. The show just plods along, seemingly with little thought of what is important to the plot and what is not. There are unimportant sub-plots and characters who contribute little or nothing and just make the story drag painfully at times. A third or more of the footage should have been left on the cutting-room floor.

There are also the "traditional" attempts at social commentary that, once again, contribute little. The company managers are suitably spineless and/or single-mindedly result oriented. And as always in Swedish shows, there are marital problems and unhappy children - also quite unnecessary to the story.

The acting is OK without being remarkable. There is the normal and unfortunate Swedish tendency for the acting to be overly dramatic, though, and everyone is very serious most of the time, staring fixedly at each other.

On the plus side, the locations are very good and the cinematography excellent.

There is no two ways about it, this version was a disappointment. The production values were top notch but somehow it seemed to skip over the story with no real substance.

What I found particularly frustrating was the total lack of character introduction and development in most cases. This was particularly noticeable with the four main suspects, a couple of which hardly have speaking parts at all. Half way through the film, I was still trying to figure out who was who in some cases. It would have been nice with a simple shot of each person, with someone addressing them by name, or something equally simple.

And why have some of the book's locations been switched, apparently for no good reason. Thus Prague has become Budapest, and Lisbon has become Istanbul. Perhaps it is just a case of filming convenience.

The film is shot for cinema (obviously) and this means it doesn't always work that well on CD. It can get murky and rather distant. And don't get me started on the miniature subtitles.

Sorry, but even allowing for the constraints of a film rather than a miniseries, I think this was only a so-so-effort.