I don’t normally watch trailers, but I figure since this is on Netflix, I’m fairly safe, since I never remember to watch movies whenever I get Netflix. I always end up watching TV series and the Great British Baking Show’s whatever latest season instead.
August 5, 2022.
The shaky cam is pretty brutal, TBH.
So yeah. This is pretty balls-to-the-wall. It’s made to look like one long continuous tracking shot like Hardcore Henry - except that it’s not in first-person perspective 99% of the time and takes itself very seriously story-wise.
Of course, it’s not actually done in one shot, but that that doesn’t make the choreography and the timing of everything less impressive. There’s a car chase that’s riveting, and I was really having a good time until that point and was ready for the final act. And then I had a glimpse at the time bar and saw that the movie wasn’t even at the 50% mark yet. My gut reaction wasn’t a positive one.
To me this would have been a much better experience as a 90-minute movie. Sadly, it’s 120 minutes. Since it’s really kinetic, it’s also somewhat exhausting to watch, and the second half felt like a real drag to me. The setting is a lot interesting than the city from the first half, and the train sequence at the end feels like a partial repeat of the car chase. And at that point, the movie has already overextended its bag of tricks and overstayed its welcome. It’s not just the more-of-the-same aspect though since there’s also a drop-off in quality. There are parts of the parachute and chopper sequences which have some really bad green screen comp.
If you’re prone to motion sickness, Carter might be rather challenging. The camera is swirling a lot all the time. Sometimes it’s to great kinetic effect, sometimes it also feels very gimmicky because it doesn’t support the action. If you found some of the drone shots in The Gray Man gimmicky, brace yourselves for this one.
The less said about the plot, the better.
Oh man, I loved this. It is just insane action from start to finish. I did watch it over a couple days, so that might have helped with the fatigue and repetition aspects JD mentioned.
It’s like, you know how Extraction was not great, but had that one amazing action sequence? Or how Atomic Blonde was pretty good and had that one amazing action sequence? Carter is like that except it’s just one two hour long amazing action sequence.
Does America not make these kinds of movies anymore? Both Hardcore Henry and Fury Road were seven years ago, and the last Crank movie 13 years ago. And Fury Road is an Australian movie anyway, and also had, like, a plot.
Well I’m sold, and I think Crank 2 is the high point of egregious action cinema, but I wouldn’t necessarily put it next to Fury Road.