Oh, my... Poo. (Rant Alert)
Good Lord.
This is the kind of film that depresses me. Or, as Diane Lane once said in 'Must Love Dogs', 'This is disturbing on so many levels.'
When so much potential is wasted. Actually, no; 'wasted' isn't sufficiently accurate. Let's say bombarded, pulverized, ground into fine particles, and then set on fire.
What the f^#% were they thinking?!?
-This is a classic 'Hero's journey' archetype story. (Google it.) And yet all aspects of what's required to tell a captivating, entertaining story of this sort are mangled.
-Our lead character is supposed to go through a transformation. He doesn't. Epic fail.
-Special effects do not inherently make for a fantastic movie. I've said this on countless occasions: We now have the ability to show on screen just about everything this side of Heaven. So we're well past the point where shiny things exploding, or magical creatures coming to life automatically get us off. Media students are capable of executing avant garde special effects that Hollywood was putting on film four decades ago. If you're counting on effects to carry the film...you're almost guaranteed not to make any money on your film.
-'Show, don't tell.'
-Jeff Bridges' voice: WTF? x a kajillion. a) He was neither Don Quixote nor Gandalf, b) he needed to affect either an American or a British accent, not one from Bizzaroland, c) the whole 'senior citizen without their dentures in' schtick was painful to watch. The director should be flogged for this alone. And it's a shame, because Bridges is capable of playing a role like this. But he needs better direction.
-What the hell was with Julianne Moore's death? We go through an entire film to get this climax?!?
-How is the lead character able to go from being a klutz with weapons to being more than capable of taking on the fiercest of creatures?
-This film would be a great one for the 'Rewrite' team to tear apart to re-build.
4/10
P.S. I don't care what the source material was. Not germane to the discussion.
P.P.S For all those TL/DR people: TFS/NWC