Here are several reasons for the low scoring reviews, for those of you who thought it was terrific. Watch again and tell me that any one of these is incorrect (NOTE. I'd warn about possible spoilers, but if you're actually thinking about what you're watching, you'll see the following plot elements coming).
The repetitive chase (hunt, find, fight, escape, hunt,find,fight,escape, huntfindfightescape) leaves little room for character development, e.g. what was it ABOUT his war experience that made Hallam decide to kill irreverent sport hunters? Do he and Bonham feel a father/son bond for each other, and if so when and why did that come about?
The sloppy digital effects (Tommy Lee's flailing torso spliced into the waterfall, flashes of Benicio's face spliced onto the fountain's cascade, as if he were in the cavity behind it.
Really? You're going to stop in the middle of the chase to forge a knife from scrap iron? Really??? You know how long that would take, and how noisy? So Bonham doesn't like guns, he's gonna knap one from flint rather than ask an agent for a combat knife? In the middle of a pursuit? REALLY????
The battlefield Kosovo set looked like a cross between Disneyland and Colonel Kurtz' most apocalyptic delusional nightmare. Too many pretty explosions, overstuffed setting, too populated by extras (who don't even react to the pretty explosions occurring feet away), too designed and manufactured looking, etc.
Yes ,the knife fight scenes were well choreographed, bloody, and inventive, with nice portrayals of effort and gravity (no wire work or movieland physics), but they needed to be cut more tightly. The way aging Tommy Lee broadcast his moves, Benicio would have filleted him like a fish, nine ways to Sunday.
If there's a deeper message to the film (Show some respect for the beings you kill, Honor thy Fatherfigure, whatever) it's trampled as badly by the pursuit as the ground is by the set dresser making blatantly overdone footprints for Tommy to "track".
I'd add more but this film's hardly worth it.
The repetitive chase (hunt, find, fight, escape, hunt,find,fight,escape, huntfindfightescape) leaves little room for character development, e.g. what was it ABOUT his war experience that made Hallam decide to kill irreverent sport hunters? Do he and Bonham feel a father/son bond for each other, and if so when and why did that come about?
The sloppy digital effects (Tommy Lee's flailing torso spliced into the waterfall, flashes of Benicio's face spliced onto the fountain's cascade, as if he were in the cavity behind it.
Really? You're going to stop in the middle of the chase to forge a knife from scrap iron? Really??? You know how long that would take, and how noisy? So Bonham doesn't like guns, he's gonna knap one from flint rather than ask an agent for a combat knife? In the middle of a pursuit? REALLY????
The battlefield Kosovo set looked like a cross between Disneyland and Colonel Kurtz' most apocalyptic delusional nightmare. Too many pretty explosions, overstuffed setting, too populated by extras (who don't even react to the pretty explosions occurring feet away), too designed and manufactured looking, etc.
Yes ,the knife fight scenes were well choreographed, bloody, and inventive, with nice portrayals of effort and gravity (no wire work or movieland physics), but they needed to be cut more tightly. The way aging Tommy Lee broadcast his moves, Benicio would have filleted him like a fish, nine ways to Sunday.
If there's a deeper message to the film (Show some respect for the beings you kill, Honor thy Fatherfigure, whatever) it's trampled as badly by the pursuit as the ground is by the set dresser making blatantly overdone footprints for Tommy to "track".
I'd add more but this film's hardly worth it.