Avshalom Halutz

A boring, mediocre, generic film which lacks cinematic creativity and feels more like a low quality mini series than an actual film. The biggest problem is the director who doesn't offer anything interesting and is making a film without even one memorable shot. Above all, this is painfully boring.

Elizabeth Olson is just unwatchable. She is stiff, seems to not be able to actually have emotions, she constantly feels like she's from a wealthier background than the actual character she plays, which is a really generic character by the way she plays it. I couldn't watch passed the first episode because of her acting. She has this cold natural expression of someone who was brought up in such a bubble that she can't truly grasp the reality of characters who are anything less than playing a princess or an aristocrat. In more dramatic scenes her acting completely fails. It just feels like there's no depth. That she doesn't even try to create a character, just be gloomy and recite lines. Same thing applies to the character before and after losing her husband. This is just lazy acting.

There are some outstanding action scenes in this movie: Ethan crashing a CIA meeting, the sandstorm fight (I hope no horses were harmed during the filming of it in heavy dust), the thrilling airport chase, and of course the outstandingly made last part of the train scene (despite being unoriginal and completely predictable). But the rest of the movie is comprised of mostly long, endless conversations between shallow, caricaturistic characters brought together in impossible scenarios. Everything is unnecessarily theatrical and overly dramatic in an almost ridiculous way, like a group meeting at a party (which felt like a scene made 15 years ago and already outdated back then) or fighting scenes on a Venetian bridge which looked like a late rip-off of Face/Off. That coupled with many boring and tedious scenes made watching the movie a challenge at times, even though, at the same time the movie was incredibly suspenseful and often exciting in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat. You are excited and anxious, yet everything takes so long you really want to get it over with. I hated the Fiat car chase, which wasn't funny as obviously intended because of the lack of chemistry between Cruise and Atwell and the fact the actors were asked to pause for way too long to create comical moments while being chased down, which ruins the suspension. "Deep Red" ("Profondo Rosso", 1975) had way better similar scenes in a rubbish small car. Overall the script seems like old and tried ideas stitched together, even though the AI theme is cool and wisely used. The strangest thing had to be the atmosphere of the movie being oddly heavy and tired at times. Possibly filming during the pandemic had taken a toll and affected the entire vibe of the film.

An unnecessary film which manages to be even more boring than the actual contest. It is simply awful, pointless and won't even please the most avid fan.