Reno

Jan 24, 2017

4.0

**Trained to be a final girl, to finish it off the transgressions.** The storyline is not bad, even though it is a very familiar concept, but it was not developed smartly enough with scenes and twists and all. The characters are fine, but I was not convinced with the casting. Not everybody, only Breslin. I have been watching her films since she was a child artist, only her recent film are not that great, or even simply good to appreciate her involvement. I blame her choices of the film and its filmmakers. As for this, it's clearly visible that she's not physically suitable to do such role. This kind of film is for Chloe Grace. For me she's more a Disney product. The other actors were not bad, especially those four fellows in the negative roles. There's nothing to talk about Wes Bently, he was like in a guest role. When it comes to the film story, it does not make any sense at all. Okay, training a person from the very young age to be terminator is very interesting for a film. But when the assignment was given to that person, as per how it all took place in this film, I thought it was unnecessary. Because it could have been dealt in an easy way. So just for the film, they took the hard way and shed some blood. Happy part was, the film did not look so boring. The setting was too dark, they avoided other unrequired characters to enter into the frame. So to focus everything on those few ones and made an attempt to shape up the film as much possible best. I would have liked it if it was a little better in some sections. In the end, I'm not fully satisfied, so I don't think it is worth a watch. Instead, you should check out other similar concept films like 'Hanna', 'Nikita' et cetera. _4/10_

I am probably going to be a bit provocative here and say that, in order to like this movie one has to rise above the expectations of this being just another mindless revenge/slasher movie where you park your brain in the lobby before sitting down. If you keep your brain in gear, especially the artistic part of it, you might like this movie. The plot is simple enough, perhaps a bit illogical at times, but it is wonderfully implemented from a cinematic point of view. Some people have referred to David Lynch when reviewing this movie and there is indeed a “Lynchesque” feeling over it. Personally I found the movie beautiful. I read some people saying it was too dark. Well, I guess I am glad that I got my new OLED TV in time to watch this movie since I am sure my old LED-LCD would have struggled with the many dark scenes. On the OLED the image was wonderful though. The somewhat eerie night scenes were so enjoyable to watch. Yes one could of course nitpick and say the lighting was unnatural but come on, the entire story was a bit far-fetched so just enjoy it for what it was, a nice piece of imagery. The story is a bit weird. A guy who has gotten his wife and daughter killed by a set of psychopathic young men trains a (very) young girl for years to take revenge. That is of course a bit convoluted. Why not just wack them himself since he seemed to know what he was doing when it came to inflicting all kinds of hurt? Okay, I get it, because the script writer thought that would be too boring. Fair enough. The actors are doing a decent job in the movie. The lead character is maybe a bit too much of a baby-doll character but she is still doing a good job of her role. The four bad guys are doing a good job of being creepy and sadistic. There are plenty of unanswered questions though. For example, how did he get his hands on the girl in the first place? I actually think the movie was a bit short. I guess it was a bit short on money as well and maybe it is related. Anyway, I feel that, once the “hunt” had started that more could be done with it. When the ending approached I felt it to be a bit rushed to be honest. Bottom line, I liked this movie. It was cinematically beautiful, a bit weird (in a good way), somewhat creepy, and decent enough story-wise. Maybe it is really a bit short of four stars but it is closer to four than to three.