don’t worry, this is not the film student in me jumping out, i don’t give a shit about going on a deep analysis dive, that’s not me. this is just my very basic thoughts from immediate memory. it’s just three am.
it’s...... an action movie ok, and a michael bay movie at that, so you can imagine how generic it is. it’s not bad, the premise is very cool - ”ghosts” and all that, so thank you writers -, but the plot and moreso the story could have been just more... interesting and original i guess. it could’ve gone deeper and had more idk, heart or soul, but as said, of course you don’t expect great depth from bay. it would’ve had to have been directed by someone completely different. and then it would’ve been a completely different movie which is not a bad thing or a good thing. there were backstory sequences for the characters though. i liked Ben’s best. his character also seems to have a specific theme to him, and that theme makes him a little fuller of a character than the others. the addition of this is again thanks to the screenwriters, and the execution is thanks to Ben.
there are great shots of course, lots of drone shots etc., but the thing is - generic. the editing is about as masterful as you’d expect from a movie that mostly has action and explosions, again just quite basic, but the sound and music are actually quite nice! in the beginning it feels a bit muffled like we’re in the character’s heads a little bit, there is a great slowed down, more silent part near the end where it gets quite tense and at least i got a bit emotional, and there is also a funny music bit with a car radio. and with some running. the look of it all in all is of course impressive because of the scale, but generic because of the director etc., not even necessarily because of the genre. it’s what you’d expect, and that’s not a good thing or a bad thing.
despite not having the most heart as a movie, i genuinely feel like Ben and his character bought a lot, if not most of it. i actually liked his character and he was involved in very important scenes where we were looking at the dynamics of this group of people. another part i liked was Corey Hawkins’, Seven and Four were the diamonds in the rough in this movie. no character was as full as they could’ve been, but they struck me as the most interesting ones i would say. Ben is a great actor, like actually, but i don’t yet know what kind of roles i’d like to see him in the most. i’d say many. i will admit though, that this is the only other role i’ve seen him in in addition to borhap.
this was a great chance for Ben and i hope this and his other roles combined will show the industry he has great skills at doing many different roles in many different type of productions.
