As a film critique I am supposed to be as critical as possible. I am supposed to watch a film in an un-biased viewing, yet, still critique in the upmost critical way. Have you ever seen a film where in the first 15 minutes of the run time you think to yourself, "Hey, this movie has a lot of potential?" Most movies start off with that same promise of entertaining, but intelligent story telling. Then bam, the transforms into a meandering mess with a rushed third act and an ending that really is not developed enough, nor do you care enough to really be dazzled by the end product. "Unknown" falls into this category of could have, would have, and should have.
"Unknown" tells the story of Dr. Matthew Harris (Nesson), a professor of biotech engineering and his wife Dr. Liz Harris who fly into Berlin, Germany for a medical conference, where a famous Biotech engineer will unveil his top secret research project. This is only the begging of where things get a big foggy, literally for our titular character, and metaphorically for the poorly executed plot. After Matthew leaves his briefcase at the Airport, he rushes back there to go find it, but his cabdriver ends up getting into a car accident where he is hit on the head from impact and forgets portions of memories.
The problem with this story is not the specific events that occur during the unfolding of this thriller action film, quite the contrary actually, the individual events that happen in this film are interesting and well developed, but how they are executed and unfolded for the audience is mundane and rushed. This movie could have been a unique entry into the "memory-loss" genre. But, the filmmakers behind "Unknown", respectively Jaume Collet-Serra, obviously saw too many films like his own, ala "The Bourne Identity" and tried so hard to imitate that formula, but lost sight of what makes a movie revolutionary; intelligence, uniqueness, and entertaining, not copying an already trite formula and calling it "new."
Believe me; I understand that the running theme in this review is "could have been so much more." "Unknown" really could have been surpassed other films in the same category. Except, with a rushed third act and a supposedly "twist" ending, the film really didn't know where it wanted to go, and how it wanted to be taken by its audience. The ending was truly the icing on the shit cake.
Normal thrillers place key story elements throughout the movie, not rush everything into a 5 minute scene that doesn't even really feel that important. That is where the writers of this film, Oliver Butcher and Stephen Cornwell, really went down the wrong path. "Unknown" is just a plethora of poorly shot fight and chases scenes, with no actual semblance of thrill in the plot, and, instead opted to put all of the important information at the end of the film in a poorly executed scene.
With actors like Liam Nesson and Diane Kruger giving out spectacular performances, you start to think of this movie being on par with "The Bourne Identity." But, immediately in the beginning of the film, you start to see a bustling of bad acting, especially from January Jones, the amazing actress from Mad Men whom I expected so much more from here. But, you can obviously tell that she did not put as much effort in as the always great Liam Nesson, or even Diane Kruger.
Those fight scenes. If there is one other large complaint about this movie, other than the rushed third act and poorly executed plot, is that the fight scenes and chase scenes weren't shot well. I did not get the real feel of these men fighting, nor did I feel the thrill of these chase scenes. More than anything, I thought to myself "When will these scenes be over with?" It's a complaint that I've had for years now with modern action and kung-fu films. They don't show the damned fight. All the cinematographers do is shot a half second clip of, let's say a fist punching someone in the face, then a half second clip of a knee hitting someone in the ground, you get where I'm going with this. It's poorly shot, and the audience does not really get the scale or the thrill of the fight. It's annoying, trite, and to be honest the antitheses of exciting, boring.
Though "Unknown" has many flaws, and it probably does come off as I hated this film, there were some redeeming aspects to the movie. The characters where at least interesting and no matter how much I see Liam Nesson nowadays, I still think he's an awesome actor who pours every fabric of his being into his rolls. The "twist" ending, though it was rushed and kind of unoriginal, was still pretty cool. The writers just needed to execute the ending better, but like I said in the beginning, would have, could have, and should have.
It really is tough critiquing a movie. Sometimes I want to see a film and just watch it for what it is. Enjoy it, and just absorb the entertaining and thrilling aspects that bring you along for the ride. Everyone else in the theater with me was well over 50. They all loved it. Seriously, they all thought this movie was spectacular. When walking out the theater all I could here was, "Wow I did not expect that," or "That girl was so good, she really did put on a good performance." Sometimes I wish I couldn't be as critical as I have to be, but this is the line of work I choose. This movie sucked, and I will stand by my word.
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