The Fifth Estate

There's one word I think effectively describes this movie - plain. Bear bones. I felt nothing special at all during this movie. And that's incredibly depressing.

I really hate to think that this movie is poor. Wikileaks is such an important story, one that is so revolutionary to our culture now especially for journalism and general knowledge for the public. It was an exciting reveal, a tense situation for everyone involved and one that caught the eye of general news watchers. So...where was any of that? The movie substituted story telling and drama for sortof edgy or artsy images. Completely unnecessary ones I might add. Why are there a million desks filled with smiling Cumberbatches? Because unnecessary symbolism...?

This movie tries to be like The Social Network, with just as much drama and story as artistic vision, where the story is made intriguing not just through fantastic writing but through a visual method that compliments the story. This film does not. Instead of an interesting story, this movie cuts the script to bear basics and the occasional edgy line, but not necessarily well written one either. It was so boring, so weighed down.

Performances in this might be great. Cumberbatch is particular is getting fantastic reviews for his performance. But I couldn't tell. This is a rare instance where a film is so boring that I simply can't judge anything about the rest of the film. Cumberbatch felt forcibly angry, faux angsty, awkwardly fake. But I could tell it wasn't for a lack of effort, it was from obvious plot points and stupid characterizing lines. We get it, movie, he's zany and weird. But it's not like Zuckerberg's character in Social Network where his abnormality was fascinating or different. It felt so fake. It's sad to say, but it really feels like the story was thought to be too boring, not dramatic enough for a film. Which raises two points. One - Who on earth wouldn't see the significance of Wikileaks, and see it's potential story to be told? And two - if you don't find it interesting, or think it needs bad imagery to spice it up, why even make the movie?

And that's the problem with the cinematography as well. It's plain, it's only used to show the actors. It doesn't take advantage of its own artistic merit, unless (you guessed it) it's one of these terrible cutaway shots. Then, for no reason, the cinematography shines. Again, do you really think a story to be so boring or simple that it need no effort, and that the only way your story will shine is if you force bad symbolism down the throats of viewers. It doesn't work. Nothing works. And it's a real shame.

Rank - 1/5