I saw the Amateur today, and upon walking out, I enjoyed it, but I wasn't entirely satisfied. Let me explain.
The Amateur follows a cryptographer, who (over the course of the movie) seeks revenge when his wife dies in a terrorist attack, and the agency he works for does nothing, so he relies on his intelligence to do it himself.
It's a simple premise. Simple premises can be executed well. I don't mind that. But what I do mind is mess, and unfortunately, this movie has quite a bit of it.
At first it's very fast paced. So fast paced that I feel as if we brush over some stuff pretty quickly. For instance, the death of our hero's wife, Sarah. I wanted to feel it, but I couldn't, as I feel the emotional impact wasn't given the attention it deserves.
Maybe I feel this way because Sarah herself isn't given a lot of attention. Her being in the movie alive is around 15 minutes, and during that time, we don't know much about her, other than her job and that the main character loves her. I feel like we never got to know her as much as we should, and in turn, because I couldn't care for Sarah, I couldn't care as much as I wanted for the protagonist's motive. I want to engage with the character, and feel what he's feeling.
Because of that, and the fact that she's supposed to be central to the story, I feel like I got more emotion out of American Assassin.
After the initial 30 minutes, pacing for the rest of the movie was all over the place. It's too fast on the tense, suspenseful scenes and slow on everything else.
Other than that, the ending was a little lost on me, but I can't get into that without spoilers.
Although it was messy, it is not something I'd disregard from ever watching again. It was fun to see a little twist on the one-man army stick. Someone who uses brains other than their fists and bullets.
6/10.
