: Suspect Zero
I heard bad things about this going in, but the trailers made it seem cool: it stars the awesome Ben Kingsley as a serial killer killer. Unfortunately, the critics were correct. This film has many problems, mostly with the script. The film starts out well enough, with a series of murders getting the FBI involved. Soon we learn these are “messages” targeting a particular FBI agent who has a troubled background (revealed in flashback, of course). Eventually the FBI guy figures out that all the murder victims are serial killers and so he deduces that this guy is “helping” society — but his superiors don’t agree and want the guy taken out. It’s pretty much at this point that the film tanks. There are several reasons for this. One, the film has built so much around the gimmick of a “serial killing serial killer” that once that’s revealed there isn’t much left to the movie (and of course since that’s revealed in the film’s trailer, you know that going into the movie). Two, the pace of the film’s inconsistent. It starts out glacial, as we investigate murder step-by-step. Then it speeds up, jumping from murder scene to murder scene like a music video, which results in minimizing the significance of the latter murders. Three, the story falls apart and is very choppy and illogical when the FBI meets Ben Kingsley’s character, and in the “climax” of film when they meet up the final serial killer, “suspect zero.” The latter gets his name because he’s a killer under the radar, so good the FBI don’t even know he’s been killing, and yet he’s murdered thousands. Four, the ending is anti-climactic and badly filmed. Most of the time I liked the direction, but the ending consists of the FBI guy and the killer rolling around in dust “fighting” — yet all you can see is their legs entangled as they roll back and forth for like two minutes. Five, the film can be broken into two halves, the search for Kingsley’s character and the “climax” when the FBI finds him and they track down the final serial killer (suspect zero). Unfortunately, there’s no good transition between these halves. Even if the ending were decent, the film would still be awkward and incomplete because of that.
The whole film has a lot of puzzling logistical issues. For instance, I got very confused: I thought one location was supposed to be in Oklahoma City (the FBI guy is based in New Mexico), yet later in the film the FBI guy has a brain wave and rushes to that building to confirm something. He gets there, apparently, in minutes — so either it wasn’t so far away or he’s Flash in disguise. Who knows or cares? A similar problem is at the end, when he’s tracking “suspect zero.” He’s in the middle of nowhere and calls his partner who shows up within minutes, somehow knowing where he is from the phone call. There’s also some real stupidity. Like the FBI standing around in obvious fashion waiting for the serial killer to come home. When the guy drives up, he sees the FBI guy and takes off, provoking a road chase. How stupid is that? Wouldn’t even the dumbest cop know to hide? And even dumber is that the FBI guy’s in an SUV and the killer drives a huge semi… so the SUV, after calling for backup, keeps trying to pass the semi. What for I could never figure out. Backup is coming, the semi’s not getting away, so why risk your life trying to pass the semi? Basically the scriptwriter needed more action at the end and so forced a pointless high speed chase. Oh dear, there are so many problems with this film I could go on and on. It’s a fine concept and the direction’s actually pretty good, but unfortunately the foundation (the script) is unfinished. A waste of potential.
Topic: [/movie] |