Starting off with, I just got to say thank God for these actors, because if there were some lesser-known actors or some new actors, this film would have been a complete disaster but for the script, the direction, or lack of direction. I want to save that conversation from my criticism, but going back to these performances, which I think are the best elements of this film.
I thought everyone did the best that they could in their roles, even though their characters were somewhat boring and dull and very stereotypical and one-dimensional, but I thought that the actors did the best they could in a row, starting off with kind of the standouts for me. Lupita Nuongo: She always knows the assignment. She plays this MI6 agent who specialises in cutting-edge technology hacking into computers, but she also has a pass. She used to be an agent on the field who used to throw those hands, and she really hasn't done that in quite a few years. But in the film, as the macguffin has said, this is a device in the wrong hands that can set off World War III.
It's just like I want to save the world and be the hero, but she has someone to go home to, which brings me to my other standout character, played by Penelope Cruz, who I've always been a fan of since seeing her in Blow and Vanilla Sky, and she's just such a great actress, but just like Lupita Nuongo, Penelope Cruz has a family, she has a husband, she has kids to fight for, so her character, those two characters, for me, really did elevate the storey and bring more stakes to the film, because, outside of that, the rest of our characters don't really have family to fight for, which we'll talk about here in a second, but those two actresses, I thought, the best parts of the film. But that doesn't mean Jessica Chastain, the film's real star and a CIA operative, should be overlooked.She is an agent who really can't trust anyone, but I thought that she did the best that she could in the role. She wasn't a standout for me, but her back and forth with a couple of other characters, like Sebastian Stan, aka Bucky Barnes, aka the Winner Soldier, who, if you're a Sebastian Stan fan like I am, he's not in the film that much and when he is on the screen, he's very kind of one note, but I thought that, like I said up top, he did the best that he could, but also, there are other characters like Diane Cougar, who is like this rival German agent, who's back and forth between her and Jessica Chastain
I thought the beginning was very interesting, and I wish there had been a little bit more of that, but I really enjoyed Diane's kind of backstory where she comes from her father and how she got into her German agency, so I thought she was an interesting character, and I can't discount her Fan: Bing Bing, who is a Chinese agent who isn't in it a lot, and who comes into the film a lot later than I expected.
So those are my positives. I've got to jump to my negatives, and I want to start off with the villain of this film, who's never been on screen. He's off-screen. He's behind the camera. He's directing this film. He's co-writing this movie. I'm talking about Simon Kimberg, and I have always said to myself, whenever I see Simon Kinberg, I always go to X-Men Days of Future Past, and then when you think about his career, this man has to be owed some favours because I truly do not understand how he gets movies made because I think this is his second film that he's directed. He doesn't have a voice. I think Simon Kim Burke lacks direction.
You know, you can say what you will about Dark Phoenix, but I thought that film was horrendous, and I think this film is even worse. I think he just doesn't have a voice to be found, or at least to me, he doesn't have much direction in these films. I think of the way the film handles the script, and we'll talk about the action, which was something that was very very much of an issue.
But I thought the script was just so so boring, so stereotypical, so predictable in the lines of dialogue; it's almost like they were just kind of filling in the blanks, like, hey, you're a great actor, you're an academy award-winning actor, can you fill in the blanks for us and kind of put something that you think would be cool to see in the film. So, with that said, I'm going to give this film a two out of five because the pacing is two hours long and the storey could have been told in much less time. I'm really disappointed because, again, I really admire these actors in this role and I thought they were just kind of let down by the very poor direction.