Guy Ritchie has been replaced by AI
I am a fan of Guy Ritchie. More accurately, I am a fan o many of his moviesI am particularly appreciative of his crime comedy movies like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, and RocknRolla. They are clever, a bit seedy and use exposition in a way that moves the story along without being overly preachy. I even enjoyed his Sherlock Holmes movies and feel like he brought new life to the detective and made him an action hero. This is no small accomplishment.
My only criticism of his movies is that he creates a distance or a space between his protagonist and the audience and that diminishes the stakes for the audience in the outcome. Sure, there is tension but as an audience member I am never clear on what outcome I want to happen.
This is true if every movie he has made but since Sherlock Holmes it feels like Ritchie stopped caring about characte development andn has created movies that are a series of set pieces that come together in what is supposed to be a satisfying way but more often than not isn't.The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was a flawed gem of a movie. It had the potential for a few sequals but failed to deliver. I have not seen, nor intend to watch Aladdin live action. Both for the problematic actor who portrays the genie as well as my belief that live action versions of a cartoon should be additive, not substitutive.
But the period I am so interested in is 2019 onwards. Ritchie's output starts to jump in pace. For the first 10 years he made 5 movies but in the last 10 years he has managed to put out 8 movies with another one coming next year. And he has two years (2019 and 2023) where he put out 2 movies in a year. And the level of complexity of his movies has gone up with more location shoots and extensive CGI post production work in the case of Aladdin.
Besides the significant increase in output the quality, or should I say novelty of his work has slid off and feels like Ritchie out his scripts into ChatGPT and asked for more variations on the theme. The cleverness is all but missing and with the exception of scene stealing comedy genius Colin Farrell, the dialogue feels forced and unnatural. The twists and turns are meandering and as the audience I was never really surprised with any outcomes. And thre is a detachment to the violence that makes it practically cartoonish. This is evident in his earlier work but has a sheen or gloss on it now that makes it feel artificial.
The lastest film of his that I watched was The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. It's a period piece based on actual events that occured during WW that is clever in its casting (Henry Cavill as the proto-James Bond was clever considering Cahill's inability to obtain the role of James Bond himself) butwe don't really care about any particular character and there is never a time in the whole movie where I felt that there was a chance for failure. The characters are two dimensional caricatures of real people. I think this really hit home when they reveal at the end that Henry Cavill's character and Eiza Gonálaez's characters got married afterwards There was absolutely no chemistry between the two of them and I honestly got more couple vibes with Alex Pettyfe's portrayal as Geoffrey Appleyard and Cavill.
To be fair, Ritchie is not known for doing romance well as evidenced in his sole attempt directing his then wife Madonna in Swept Away but at least give us a sign the two were romantically interesed in each other.
The cinematography was great and the action set pieces were fun. It's a movie about a very serious moment in history that had lasting consequences and none of that is effectively conveyed in the movie. Death is used as a punchline and doesn't move the plot forward.
Given the cast and the subject matter I had some expectations that this movie would be better than it was. I am starting to have my doubts about certain actors, namely Cavill and whether they can carry a tentpole movie. I am also less and less interested to hear what Guy Ritchie is doing next as they are all blending in to be a nonsensical slurry of uninspired filmmaking but someone who was once seen as an auteur and a visionary.
Comments
Post a Comment