Here is my review of Magnificent 7. Yes, I am doing two in one day.
Once again, I am
compelled to let you know I am not a professional when it comes to reviewing
movies. There may also be spoilers here at the end. I try to keep my initial review spoiler free,
but at the end I like to say what I would have done differently if I was a
writer. That means sometimes discussing details about the movie I would
otherwise omit. I still try and keep the
spoilers light.
To start, I have
never seen the original show this was based on.
I walked into this movie with no bias, just looking forward to seeing a
modern Western and hoping to enjoy the movie.
Man did I.
The introduction
of the villain in the first scene is wonderfully done. He manages to exude menace in a way that
makes you think everything he does has an evil motive about it. The suspense of waiting for that shoe to
drop, pulls you into the movie and along for the ride right away.
The characters
are good. Some great. Denzel Washington and Chris Platt play off
each other well. The other characters,
well they aren’t as big, but they all get their moments that make you
smile. Vincent D’Onofrio plays such a
different character form the King pin I had to look hard to recognize him. The girl who looks like a Jennifer Lawrence
rip off (sorry, but it’s kinda true) could have used more personality but I
have little complaint in this area.
Every character gets an introduction, and in moments you know what that
character is about. I do have to give a
special shout out to Ethan Hawke as his character probably has the biggest
character arc. Most everybody else their
arc is pretty straight. This is the
character, and we will tell you why they fight and act like they do in a few
seconds.
The movie is
beautiful. There is something about all
the shots of the town with the burnt out church in the background that speaks
to you. Every shot looks good, and even
in the inevitable “This is a Western so there is going to be men staring at
each other waiting to shoot” moments, it didn’t feel like anything dragged to
me.
The villain could
have been more complex. He is very, one
note. His motivation is greed, and he
will kill anyone who gets in the way of that motivation. No real depth. However, in the context of this movie it
works. There is something about a
villain who calmly lights a cigarette while his army charges into a town, as if
he is already bored about being there.
It is stated
before the big fighting begins, that not everyone in the town will walk away
from the fight. Part of the glory of this
flick is it doesn’t hesitate to show people on both sides of the fight getting
shot and killed. The body count is high
on both sides. I did expect that despite
this the seven this show revolves around would escape unscathed. I have been watching too many Marvel movies
apparently. I won’t say who, but several
of our heroes don’t make it.
This movie is a
definite A in my book. It is pure
popcorn entertainment and the only big complaint I had is that there could have
been more of each character. To do this
however would have made the movie much longer, and I don’t think the joy might
have lived through that.
Now comes the
spoiler part. If there is any. So, beyond may be spoilers, I will still try
and keep them light, but you have been warned.
One thing I would
have liked to see is more motivation in the characters. You understand by the end of the movie why
Denzel Washington’s character is there, but the rest seem to just follow him
“because.” There is no reason I can see
for most of the characters to throw themselves into a hopeless fight, or I
might have missed something. Chris
Pratt’s character was about the gold.
Red Harvest felt it was his “path?”
Yeah, that’s about it.
The woman who plays
the heroine, who is almost the only woman in the movie that isn’t background
had severe personality issues. She could
glare and cry. That was her two
modes. I wanted to feel heartbroken for
her, and I did when her husband was killed, but it faded quickly as I didn’t
get anything else emotional from her for the rest of the movie. I would have given her some more moments to
explore who she was.
I really have no
other complaints. I think for me this
was a near perfect movie. I loved it, I
will own it, and I will probably watch it again a few times.
Once again, this
is a big screen movie. The big Western
landscape and the action begs to be seen on a big screen. The movie is great, go see it.
What did you all
think of it? Did I miss something while I was excitedly noticing that guns
didn’t run out of bullets? Unless it was
convenient to the plot that is. What
would you have done differently in this movie?
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