- Sensibility: There are a few moments where characters' decisions under duress are strange and a lack of background gives for some ambiguous character motivations that
create confusion throughout. Abel's acting has brought widespread criticism of the film, but I think, for the most part, he's largely playing himself and any curiosities can be written off as his own artistic
idiosyncracies.
- Cinematography: Visually stunning throughout. Lots of great camera movements and framing in classic Trey Edward Shults style. However, there is a huge over-use of
the spinning camera shots in vehicles and a strange use of a colored swirl which doesn't really seem to communicate anything or hold any importance in the story. The editing also hurts the film,
as there are moments where the movie feels more like a concert recording than a narrative.
- Energy: The film has a good energy, but it stays too long on concert sequences and in some of the other non-literal
sequences that feel like filler. The film lulls in a dream sequence that is about five times longer than it should have been. The narrative issues added to these make for intermittent immersiveness.
- Narrative: The biggest flaw by far is the film's focus on Abel's character, when Anima's character is not only more interesting but is more important to the overall plot development. There is
far too much time spent going over Abel's particular issues, which, by the end, become moot.
- T-Points: The film received two bonus points: one for an excellently choreographed murder by stabbing fight sequence and one for a strange, but allusive, sequence about song reviews.
This film is underrated in my opinion. Is it great? Definitely not. Is it as bad as most reviewers are claiming? Also, definitely not. This film demonstrates how
other review systems are terribly flawed. This film gets terrible scores on rotten tomatoes, while slews of Marvel films with objectively less narrative content, worse storytelling, worse visuals,
and less artistic vision score well. The ambiguity with most reviewer's scoring systems overall hurts flawed films with artistic qualities like this one, which will almost certainly result in a
major bomb at the box office. The major platform reviews to box-office link is a contributing factor to the onslaught of prequel, sequel, and remake releases that swamp the theaters and
disappoint the film lovers community.
Number of Watches: 1