Absolutely worthy sequel until the tacked on ending
Go on
okay not so much tacked on but now I read one of the original drafts and for some reason Sollima basically cut most of the whole final act which this scene was a part of. it worked in context with that whole ending but not in the final film.
Anyway apart from that it's, as I said, one hell of a worthy sequel. The 'land of the wolves' that was talked about at the end of the first - this is it visualised. Great perfs from everybody as expected
There are moments in this movie were the filmmaking is absolutely incredible; moments that I would say top scenes from the first movie. However, even though this movie has some incredible moments, it is thoroughly inconsistent in story. It spends the first half trying to figure out which plot to settle on, and once the second half starts, you realise they went with the most uninteresting plot imaginable. It does not stall the movie per say, but make the road for the movie a lot more rocky.
Pros:
- THAT SUPERMARKET SCENE!!! If the rest of the movie was up to the level of grit and realism which that scene conveyed, it might have been my favourite movie of the year.
- Isabela Moner is a star in the making. She holds her own against del Toro really well.
- I really enjoyed the more lived-in scenes, like when Alejandro and Isabela pretend to be immigrants; it was a really interesting angle to go with.
- The music is really dope.
- I'm super fucking glad Alejandro did not go rogue. That's what it looked like from the trailers, and I would have been so angry if that's where the story went.
Cons:
- Too many subplots in a movie where it did not know which storyline it wanted to settle on.
- Matthew Modine has some of the worst dialogue created for an actor, and I have no idea what direction Catherine Keener was given because her delivery was all over the place.
- The third act has some many problems, and it only gets worse the more you think about it.
Still, I went in with low expectations, but came out generally entertained with a somewhat engaging movie despite several problems I had.
There are moments in this movie were the filmmaking is absolutely incredible; moments that I would say top scenes from the first movie.
I think I agree with the first part of that sentence.
The dirt road sequence was pretty fucking tense.
I too enjoyed the scenes surround Alejandro and Isabela alone. There was something interesting happening there.
I'm in shock of how this was greenlit, this is one stylishly incoherent movie
it doesn't even have "acts" things just happen in a herky jerky random chaotic manner for two hours without a lot connecting them and half the big decisions don't make sense sense. Nothing is developed. It's just bad.
The actual filmmaking saves a lot of the movie, but I didn't expect it to be this bad.
