MovieChat Forums > The Terminal (2004) Discussion > I have a problem with how he enters the ...

I have a problem with how he enters the country


The whole opening of the movie, Viktor was free to enter illegally, he refuses, his life in the airport ensues, and then in the end he enters...illegally?

The visa wasn't signed by the antagonist, Dixon, whose subordinates disobey him and allow Viktor to enter illegally.

I don't get the logic here, or any sense of cathartic release or victory.

Add this is the go-nowhere relationship with air hostess Amelia, and this movie is underwhelming.

His mission was to get a jazz signature? Um, okay? Any foreshadowing of his love of jazz? No but he can do good plastering!

For a movie to work for me, the turning points and motivations and stakes must be great or at least make sense. This movie is like a good first draft and you say "go and read up on 'the hero's journey'.

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This whole movie is pretty bad. Although, the last 40 minutes or so are alright. Honestly, this has to be Spielberg's worst film in my view. The current IMDB rating of 7.4 is a little shocking. Not only does the story unfold in a very unrealistic way but then, he finally enters illegally, I mean, FFS he had a chance to do this earlier. Whatever... this movie just didn't work. Another poster summed it up fairly well in this thread here - https://moviechat.org/tt0362227/The-Terminal/5c6c20a5dedb6431c2027251/Things-that-bothered-me

I don't want to go through it all. This is just not a good film. There is so much wrong with this movie, it's not worth watching, unless you're just a huge Tom Hanks fan, you might like it. I have to give it a 4.5 out of 10.

However, I do think the autograph was to finish a collection of signatures for his father.

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I agree that it’s Spielberg’s worst. Worse even that Crystal Skull, which is hated because it’s an Indy film and falls painfully short of the Trilogy, but on its own terms has a decent first half and some great sequences among the bad ones.

But The Terminal is a standalone film that took me three sittings to finish. It’s poorly paced, the story goes in weird directions, and there’s a nasty whiff of forced political messaging.

Spielberg is bad when he goes political, which is far too often in his late career. When he wants to entertain us, and especially when he wants to frighten us, he’s the best there is.

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Yeah, he's still one of my favorite directors but The Terminal should have been shelved mid-production. Hanks is starting to get on my bad side too. He was not very good in Elvis and this. He might be a slightly overrated actor. Still like him in several movies though.

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The good acting by hanks carried the film.

The ending was weird, I initially thought the guy she broke up with got her by doing the visa, but then realised the boss of the airport offered it to her as a bribe and I assume then deliberately didnt sign it so wasnt usable.

I think the film was ok up until the last 1/4 or so of the movie where it seemed to fall apart.

On the entering illegally, the indian cleaner arguably is what motivated him, he got himself arrested, after calling him a coward which meant the honourable thing to do was enter the country. But it felt a bit off to me, ending seemed a bit odd.

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