Finally got around to seeing this. Oh man, this movie bummed me out. It had so much potential and the premise is super interesting. JDW and the child actor (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) especially were amazing. But this is another Gareth Edwards movie that is stunning visually, but just falls apart in the narrative. There is no gray in this movie at all, just completely black and white. The Avatar comparisons are apt, especially during the third act.
And the complaints about how America are portrayed are just lame. Look, if you are American (I am) and you still can’t see that America’s actions around the world are hurting a lot of people and their countries, then you really need to look at our history and open your mind because yes, America is bad to a lot of people in the world. There’s a lot of Vietnam imagery in this movie and yeah it’s probably there to parallel America screwing over other civilizations. But that happened, it’s not just a story. Movies sometimes point the finger at our society and the evil in there. If you can only look at America as this savior that can do no wrong, I really don’t know what to tell you.
Anyway, back to the rest of the movie. It felt so surface level and muddled. So much just didn’t make sense. The “weapon” being this child just felt like manipulation so you feel for her. There was no reason, narratively, that it needed to be a child besides to make it this lone wolf and cub story. The whole last act just fell apart for me. Nothing made sense. The military were just inept trying to catch JDW and the child.
The only saving grace of this movie was the visuals. It was absolutely beautiful. The city parts felt like a live action Cyberpunk. You could feel the influence of Blade Runner, Aliens, Avatar. Even The Golden Child to some extent. I was really into it the first half, but by the end I was just so bummed at what a missed opportunity this film is.