Zodiac-Man is this flick dull!
What exactly happened to David Fincher? ARRG! I really enjoy most of his films, Seven is great, so was Fight Club. Panic Room and The Game are fine as well, but Zodiac is painful. Oh so painful. Could this movie be any duller than it is? Seriously I was not prepared ,my friends. The film is far too long at about a 160 minutes and it just doesn’t look right. In fact, the look of the film is simply distracting.
Zodiac is a tough film to review as I went into it with highexpectations. One would think that a film examining the story of the Zodiac killer in late 60’s San Francisco would be more interesting. Zodiac follows a group of reporters and police detectives as they try to track down the elusive killer. Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. aren’t horrible as the reporters Graysmith and Avery; they are just flat and uninteresting, as are the police detectives played by Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards.
We, the audience, are just dragged and pulled from one scene to the next in a film that seems to be without focus, the thing just simply lacks a core. The murder scenes are likewise not too interesting or creepy. Bottom line is the film can’t be bashed, as it isn’t horrible, it’s just so darn flat that one has trouble getting over it. Zodiac is boring, long and has an odd look. Fincher’s Zodiac does enough well to keep you from being irritated, but I would advise that you just skip it.
Story C- (No doubt there is a good script in the Zodiac story, but this was not it. One big problem is Zodiac is hard to follow. If you let your mind wander for a bit you might get lost. I hate movies that spoon feed the audience every little bit of info, but Zodiac has a serious clarity problem.)
Acting C+ (The acting is not bad. It just seems as though no one was trying too hard. It is sort of odd with such a high-profile film.)
Visuals C- (Strange looking film.)
Originality/Innovation C- (Not too innovative. You don’t feel you are dealing with the Fincher of Fight Club when watching Zodiac.)
Enjoyability Grade C-
Home Theater/HD Factor C
Overall Grade C- (The problem with Zodiac isn’t its budget, as the budget was over $60 million and it can’t be considered a true flop as the film brought in a little more than its overall budget. However, with that said, it doesn’t take a detective to determine that the studio executives were expecting a little more return for the investment. What happened to Zodiac? Beats me.)
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