When a complex plot with enigmatic characters serve to draw the audience in and keep it fully engaged, a political thriller is successful.
Unfortunately, Syriana appears to have been made by a filmmaker who had forgotten he was making this film for an audience; that the people in the seats were flesh and blood, breathing humans who had paid for a ticket expecting a story and characters who were also made out of flesh and blood.
Instead we get stick figures who have been drawn with only slight changes in facial expressions whom Gaghan woodenly moves around the globe, uttering completely wooden, bloodless (yet overblown) dialogue.
If his point was to show there is no soul involved in any aspect of the oil industry, I "get it." But did he have to numb my emotions, insult my intelligence and completely bore me to death for over two hours to illustrate his point? Is this my punishment for being a consumer of oil?
Unfortunately, Syriana appears to have been made by a filmmaker who had forgotten he was making this film for an audience; that the people in the seats were flesh and blood, breathing humans who had paid for a ticket expecting a story and characters who were also made out of flesh and blood.
Instead we get stick figures who have been drawn with only slight changes in facial expressions whom Gaghan woodenly moves around the globe, uttering completely wooden, bloodless (yet overblown) dialogue.
If his point was to show there is no soul involved in any aspect of the oil industry, I "get it." But did he have to numb my emotions, insult my intelligence and completely bore me to death for over two hours to illustrate his point? Is this my punishment for being a consumer of oil?