[viddy]

Good movie, but not great. The trailer had me excited since last July. **Spoilers ahead**

The pacing was slow to me. I kept waiting for more action, I wasn't satisfied till the last quarter of the film. There just seemed to be too much blah blah blah talking and not enough action. I kept waiting for Clive Owen's character to grab a gun. I was waiting for him to really get pissed off and lean over and grab a rifle off the ground and start firing back, or at least carry a weapon for protection. But he just kept being taken advantage of by just about anyone else (who was carrying a weapon).

When the action was there it was fantastic. I loved the very long takes and/or the blending of multiple takes into one seamless shot. Very impressive from a filmmaking standpoint. The filming locations/set design were also a great achievement; it's such a difficult look to pull off with the amount of different locations I saw.

I also could have felt more for the characters. I didn't get to know them enough so I didn't really care for them all that much. They didn't get built up enough before diving into the journey. The best part for me was when Clive and "Key" were walking out of the building in combat with the crying baby, how everyone just froze. It was a chilling and sad moment. Excellent.

I wanted this to be the best film of the year, I wanted it to hit me like all the reviews said it would, but it just didn't have the impact I was hoping for. But like I said, when it was good, it was good.

p.s. very Half Life 2-ish indeed.