To say this contains spoilers is to imply there's something worthy of spoiling.
Simply put, this movie never should have been made. Skarsgård performance is the only reason I give this any stars at all. He shows up and attempts to turn in a heartfelt believable performance for a horrible script set in an unnecessarily absurd place. The rest of the cast phone in performances for which they never should have been cast.
The setting is unnecessary (set in "sometime in the future" in Berlin). The set design is Blade Runner, except brighter and more cheesy. It also has no bearing over the story at all. And in fact raises questions that are never answered i.e. the two antagonists served together in the American military "in Fallujah" implying it's the somewhat near future, or the US went to war again in the future. They never explain when it's supposed to be, or why, or why there's American troops in Germany or anything. They just have this bright distracting backdrop that serves no purpose and has not bearing over the plot at all. Had it been set in modern America (or Germany) it would have been actually fine. An Amish mute would be a fish out of water in either. But they set it in the future, why? Because I guess Blade Runner was coming out this year. That and I'm thinking Paul Rudd wanted to dress like a pimp.
Then there's the plot. The only character who's actions/motivations make any sense at all is the main character, who has a singular purpose - to find his girlfriend who vanished. The rest of the characters are poorly written and poorly executed. In lieu of "depth" they give each of the antagonists not one, but two personality traits. Paul Rudd's character cares enough about his daughter to monitor her sugar intake, and he's a sociopathic surgeon for the mob who kills his daughter's mother "because you want to take her away from me" (which they never explain how or why). His partner in crime (played by Daniel Fathers) runs a clinic where he fits children with prosthetic limbs, oh and he's a pedophile who films them. And when the main character kills Rudd's character he proceeds to knock him out and fit him with a voice box before attempting to kill him. Why? Exactly.
This movie doesn't make any sense. I've never written a movie review before, this was just one of the worst I've seen in a long long time. And I needed to let the rage at having wasted my time out.
Simply put, this movie never should have been made. Skarsgård performance is the only reason I give this any stars at all. He shows up and attempts to turn in a heartfelt believable performance for a horrible script set in an unnecessarily absurd place. The rest of the cast phone in performances for which they never should have been cast.
The setting is unnecessary (set in "sometime in the future" in Berlin). The set design is Blade Runner, except brighter and more cheesy. It also has no bearing over the story at all. And in fact raises questions that are never answered i.e. the two antagonists served together in the American military "in Fallujah" implying it's the somewhat near future, or the US went to war again in the future. They never explain when it's supposed to be, or why, or why there's American troops in Germany or anything. They just have this bright distracting backdrop that serves no purpose and has not bearing over the plot at all. Had it been set in modern America (or Germany) it would have been actually fine. An Amish mute would be a fish out of water in either. But they set it in the future, why? Because I guess Blade Runner was coming out this year. That and I'm thinking Paul Rudd wanted to dress like a pimp.
Then there's the plot. The only character who's actions/motivations make any sense at all is the main character, who has a singular purpose - to find his girlfriend who vanished. The rest of the characters are poorly written and poorly executed. In lieu of "depth" they give each of the antagonists not one, but two personality traits. Paul Rudd's character cares enough about his daughter to monitor her sugar intake, and he's a sociopathic surgeon for the mob who kills his daughter's mother "because you want to take her away from me" (which they never explain how or why). His partner in crime (played by Daniel Fathers) runs a clinic where he fits children with prosthetic limbs, oh and he's a pedophile who films them. And when the main character kills Rudd's character he proceeds to knock him out and fit him with a voice box before attempting to kill him. Why? Exactly.
This movie doesn't make any sense. I've never written a movie review before, this was just one of the worst I've seen in a long long time. And I needed to let the rage at having wasted my time out.