Natalie Biggs

I loved it. And before addressing some of the (in my opinion) somewhat silly criticisms I’ve seen of it, let’s talk about the things I loved!! Luther is as charming, layered and warm to watch as he has ever been. There’s a lovely nostalgia in watching Idris and the cast again whilst at the same time it feels fresh thanks the Netflix and their budgets! While the plot line in terms of our villain and how he operates/his goals have been done in similar fashion in other films/series, it is done very well and there is enough variation to make it feel like new. I found Andy Serkis to be very scary as a villain, his level of cruelty and his instability made him an excellent adversary for our man Luther. I thought the ending was delightful and teases of more to come which I certainly hope is true. Now, my take on some of the alternative perspectives I have read. There are a lot of negative comments around the pace at the start between Luther seeing the original crime and him going to prison. I’m not sure some of these people understand the timeline. Maybe they didn’t see the series before the film. Also lots of comments about it being made to appear “such a short trip to Norway”, not really sure what these people were after… watching Luther sit in an economy seat for 2 hours whilst eating a bag of peanuts in an edgy and reckless “I’m not worried about allergens” kind of way perhaps… lots of remarks about the villains motives and methods having been done before. Well, if I’m honest I don’t think there’s much that hasn’t been done before, (we live in a world after all that’s about to release yet ANOTHER Scream movie and another edition of Saw in 2023) and actually I think the level of glee that our killer displays and the depravity of his crimes, combined with the scale of his whole operation help to elevate and provide a different approach to a base theme that has been done in similar ways in other shows/films. Are there elements of the prison break that are a bit far fetched, sure. Is the wig on Andy Serkis a bit low budget, yup. Did any of these things make it any less brilliant? No… let’s not talk about the believe able nature of a dramatic/crime film when we happily watch a franchise and seem quite comfortable to accept things like rogue millionaires dressing as bats and saving us all… it’s a dramatic film not a documentary. Embrace it for what it is and you’ll love it.