Talib Bernard

I've seen this referred to Prime's answer to Narcos. I stopped watching Narcos cuz I was only really interested in the Escobar storyline, but ZZZ is nowhere in it's class. I agree totally with reviewer K Bailey when he says none of the characters have any redeeming qualities and considering the plot is very character driven, the story falls off there as well. None of what any of these characters do makes sense. There's always that foreboding, melancholic music playing in the background, giving you the sense of something of depth or gravitas happening, yet it never does. Reviewer S Weber made the comment about the cartel storyline writing and I have to agree. Either the writing was horrible or Prime better invest in better post-production translators for the subtitles. The only good thing going for this show in the top quality production. There is much better things to watch tbh.

The one star was for the original concept. Technically the concept alone garners 5 stars but production/direction/casting butchered the delivery. Chiwetel Ejiofor is the only redeeming actor in the movie. Wahlberg not only couldn't make you believe he was the oldest of old-souls but his narrations were horrible and ruined the feel of this period/non-period piece. I also wasn't sure if Bathurst being depicted as some Russian oligarch wasn't part of this russophobia which has been endemic in Hollywood over the last decade. But I digress. Now many other reviewers talk about why Bathurst doesn't just use his conscience uploading bullet technology on himself if he's such a nihilist. Which is a great question. But I'll go a step further and say that the movie inappropriately conflates the concepts of the soul and the conscience of a person. The soul is what is transferred over each lifetime. The mechanism of this transference would have been a great concept to explore in t movie but nope. The conscience is the experience of the soul in one particular lifetime upto the current point in time. The conscience and soul are not the same thing. More importantly if the conscience can be capture in digital format then it should be possible to copy. But also I doubt that holding the conscience data would render it in a state of purgatory being held on a usb drive without a mechanism for experience. These Infinites have passed lives and not one of them is explored. Bathurst and Treadway are the oldest and their origin story in no way is explored. It appears that they first met in what appears to be pre-Columbian south or central America, and yet the origin story of the protagonist and antagonist is not explored. And why over their many lives do they carry such ridiculous names? Ultimately this should have been a 3 hr movie in the vein of the LOTR or should have been a series. Ultimately, a great concept but horrible attempt to put it to screen. My only hope is it was an adaptation of a book and the author did a much better job than the director of this film.

Suspense was built quite well, but just keeps building only to find out it was nothing. I get the creative licence but you can't draw upon depths of familial bonds without providing some insight into the history or relations that create that family.

Nothing scary about this film. Nothing at all. No tension nor visually terrifying. The scariest part is realising you watched it the whole way through and still have no clue about the story. Hard pass.