Julian Tuckett

This movie is a nasty prank which aims to make viewers feel uncomfortable and waste their time. The makers of this film despise the fact that many see Ned Kelly as a folk hero. It is an elaborate trap designed to make people angry and waste two hours of their lives. The cinematography is well done. It looks spectacular and feels powerful, but the movie has nothing to say. Every scene is designed with the same purpose: to be shocking and subvert the truth, but there is no insightful commentary on Australian society, no thoughtful interpretation of historical events, and no message. Over and over, it presents historical figures and sets up a scene from actual events, then something shocking and inaccurate occurs like a cheap jump scare. It has a great cast. I fell into the trap and tried to watch this movie because Russell Crowe is in it. The film makers cleverly included everything required to trick people into thinking it could be a good movie. That's why it looks good and has big names to draw you in. The biggest of all which is the titular character of course. They appropriated Ned Kelly's name so that people would be fooled into watching. That's their nasty joke. They got me. I fell for the scam and tried to watch it. I realised it was mocking me for wanting to watch a movie about Ned Kelly and turned it off before the end, but they'd already stolen over an hour of my life. It's not clever. It's just a sequence of cheap shocks. Don't get fooled like I did.