New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Unfortunately, this is where the seams of the reshoots start to show. The movie skips ahead a year and it becomes clear that it has taken a turn for the worse. There is a debriefing scene that is off-putting and awkward. It seems like something was cut out and they needed some clumsy exposition to fill in the audience. From here the movie begins to come off the rails and only briefly recovers when Vic is brought back from Planet Zero.

Once he is back on the military compound, Vic, now calling himself Doom, goes on a gruesome killing spree that is perfectly executed. It is thrilling and the Cronenberg influence is clearly on display once again. But it’s not long before his evil scheme is introduced and all hope of the movie going out on a high note is extinguished.

In the final act, character development is completely ditched and the actors have visibly thrown in the towel as the movie crawls to what can arguably be called a climax. The worst part is that the ending feels so tacked on and disconnected from what came before it. It almost seems like a different movie.

But in the end, it’s hard to judge this movie without thinking about the better movie that lies beneath the surface. The backstage drama has been well documented but how much of it is true, is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that it almost feels like two different movies stitched together.

It also can’t be a coincidence that the best-executed and most effective parts of the movie are the ones that stray from the more traditional take on the superhero genre. The movie really falls apart when it clumsily tries to force itself into a super hero movie mold. It’s also here where the tone shifts abruptly and feels like the product of the much publicized reshoots.

This lends itself to the idea that Josh Trank’s vision didn’t fully make it to the screen. But unfortunately, there is no way to judge a movie that never came out. All we have to go on is the final product.

It’s just unfortunate that the movie got swallowed by the pre-release bad buzz that created a narrative that stopped people from ever giving the movie a fair chance. A more objective assessment of the movie would note that even though it is flawed and lacking the action fans have come to expect from a superhero movie, it still has redeeming qualities.

It has some good performances. And it’s brave enough to offer a different take on the comic book movie by adding horror theme elements. If anything, it’s a strong case for studios to let directors do their jobs.

Continued:       1       2       3