Criminal

SPOILER-FREE MOVIE REVIEW

Now, I won't lie to you.

The only reason why I went to watch this movie was because of its amazing cast.

Let me just name some of them. We have Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds - all in one movie.

So, I went in without any knowledge of what the movie was about (just that it was some sort of crime thriller), and I can happily report that that is the best way one should prepare for this movie.

Criminal tells the story of imprisoned mega criminal Jericho (Kevin Costner) who is chosen to be host to an experimental memory transfer/transplant from the deceased body of CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) to help solve a case which was left on a cliffhanger when Pope was murdered.

I can't say much else because that'd be stepping right into spoiler territory.

Already, with such a concept, one could make a very interesting movie out of it. In this case, they did indeed make a very interesting movie.

Was it good though? Well, let's talk about that.

Like I said, the concept of the memory transfer was a very interesting concept should it be explored well.

Thankfully, the movie does do the concept justice by making the science of it understandable for someone like me who hated Interstellar because I didn't understand what the hell was going on with all the relativity and all that science stuff.

So, with these elements all settled and solidified, you'd expect the rest of the movie to be a breeze, right?

Sadly, that wasn't the case.

Criminal had a lot of flaws.

The film starts off on a good note by setting up the premise and putting us right into the mix of some edge-of-the-seat espionage drama involving Bill Pope (Reynolds) and some bad guys chasing him.

We are also introduced to this very interesting shady character in Elsa (Antje Traue) who is the henchwoman of the film's main antagonist - both of whom I'll talk more about later.

She tails Pope around Central London in a gorgeous black Jaguar F-Type coupe befitting of her character.

It's some really intriguing stuff, with gripping drama and pretty good action. An excellent way to start the movie off.

It's after the set-up of the plot where things start getting messy. And I mean very messy.

For starters, the film just starts to jump from this sub-plot to that sub-plot, forgetting about featuring a proper set-up for the movie's main antagonist, Heimbahl (Jordi Mollà).

On the surface, this may not seem to be that big of a deal. But it comes back to cause trouble later on because when we finally do get introduced to him, he's just so painfully underwhelming and not even in the least bit menacing.

What made it worse was that they tried to be all "mysterious" with his big reveal but it just falls short and makes him look silly.

He's more of a modern-day Blofeld (sits around and has people do his dirty work for him) from SPECTRE than a conventional antagonist like even Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor - because even he did his evil stuff on his own.

Yes, I said it. And if you read my review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, you know how much I hated Eisenberg's portrayal of the villain.

Anyway, I'm digressing.

Weak main antagonist aside, the bits where Kevin Costner starts adapting to his new memories and feelings were a welcomed sigh of relief in the movie.

Costner is fantastic in portraying the dual personalities. Something like Nicolas Cage/John Travolta in the movie Face/Off, just that it's two personalities in one body and not two.

He successfully shows the extreme struggle of having to see through someone else's memories and emotions which end up clashing with his own moral values, which seem so distant after the operation.

It's refreshing also to see Kevin Costner in a bigger role, and not just a supporting role as a character's Dad or Grandfather.

The film begins to lose its focus once again when more sub-plots and story arcs begin to come together towards the mid-point.

Along with some awful editing between or within scenes, it makes following the story a little bit harder as things are made unnecessarily convoluted and complex.

There's also a very weak array of supporting characters who lacked character development and screen time.

There was Alice Eve's Agent Lynch, who appears here and there, has two lines of dialogue and shoots her gun a few times.

That's literally all the script gives her to do in the movie.

We then have Gary Oldman as CIA Supervisor Quaker Wells, who basically plays a less-competent and much-more-vulgar-and-short-tempered Commissioner Jim Gordon from Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy (of which the former appeared in).

Biggest victim of it was the femme fatale-type character in Elsa, who just doesn't feature much despite her character being very interesting.

She barely even has any lines in the film, and as a representation of a powerful female character (especially in these times), I would have expected far more from the writers to flesh out Elsa more.

There's also the doctor played by Tommy Lee Jones, who just strolls through a performance, offering nothing much to earn his big paycheck.

Perhaps the biggest flaw of them all is in the movie's direction. Maybe this movie and its complex bits were a step too deep into the unknown for director Ariel Vromen.

Sure, an argument could be made to say that this was the script's fault, but as the director, you have the control over whether a rewrite is required or not. Hence, I feel that the director could have handled this movie far better than he did.

Mind you, it wasn't all bad. The bits where Kevin Costner is a total dick to the public were just awesome.

I mean, who wouldn't enjoy seeing a character start mucking around on the streets causing trouble for no reason due to his unstable mind? Especially when it's Kevin Costner playing that character.

These scenes of Costner dicking around, along with those featuring the former with Jill Pope (Gal Gadot, who plays Bill's wife) and her daughter were by far the best scenes in the entire movie.

There is a very nice family dynamic which goes on with the introduction of Jill. It brought warmth to the movie as well as some much-needed depth - something the film up to that point was sorely lacking in.

Gal Gadot was very impressive as the wife of the murdered Bill Pope, and to see her struggle as well as her adapting to what happened was very believable and real.

In my opinion, this is the best role I've ever seen her in. It's just awesome to see her finally getting better roles in Hollywood with characters that actually are characters, and not just the typical "hot babe" kind of roles she used to get all the time.

Perhaps my final issue with Criminal is that it sadly falls into a few genre clichés as the film progresses into its final third.

Outcomes tend to become predictable, and at times it felt like they didn't even try to make the ending as good as it could have been.

It's a shame really as it takes a toll on the intriguing feel the whole movie had going for it up till that point.

Wasted potential.

Speaking of wasted potential, I can't deny that this film and its concept were extremely promising in terms of its potential to be a great movie.

A good example to compare Criminal with is the 2014 movie Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson.

Remember that one and what a pile of shit it was?

Pretty similar to how I feel about Criminal - the only difference being that the cast for Lucy was nowhere near the standards of the cast of former.

Excellent concept, poor writing, poor execution.

All in all, Criminal is a messy film which, despite its excellent premise, ends up being more of a clichéd action thriller instead of an epic Sci-Fi action popcorn feast.

An incredibly talented cast is marred by a poor script which had so little focus on important elements like character development and clear storytelling, and boy do the results show.

Mercifully, the film is saved from total disaster thanks to excellent performances by Kevin Costner and Gal Gadot, who both helped give much needed depth to a weak overall story.

There is a saying, that "a movie is only ever as good as its villain".

In this case (the saying doesn't apply to some other films), the saying is spot-on.

Criminal was predictable, at times interesting, but mostly just a below-par action thriller.

I make it sound like its the worst movie of the year man. It's really not.

It's just not very good, that's all.

4/10.