I suppose if I'd ever read any of the comics graphic novels beforehand then this might have made more sense to me. As it was, I had to piece together the back-story as I went along. This is no bad thing, it avoids the dreaded "info dump" that so many films use to let the audience know where the hero comes from, but I felt that without this meticulous piecing together of back-story and motiviations for hero and villain that the film would have been much, much shorter. The basic story boiling down to
- Bad guy wants something.
- There's an accidental complication.
- Bad guy gets thing.
- Hero thwarts him.
While Samuel L. Jackson isn't half bad as the villain, and certainly better than he was in Jumper, I can't help but feel this is mostly because of the well written script and the tight direction of Frank Miller.
The graphic novel touches are easy to spot. Not just the occasional decent into black and while with a splash of red tie, but also in the visual metaphors, like Eva Mendes' locket being a symbol that she still remembers her roots and her love for the hero.
Overall I can't really fault it, it's a comic book come to life. The visuals are very stylish and the acting is decent, but there's nothing desperately new to see and the plot's been done a thousand times before.
Score: A disappointing C+
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