Snowden (2016)

[baumer]

Discuss

[antovolk]

So, this was actually pretty good?

Yes, it's essentially a classic Hollywood retelling of the whole Citizenfour story with flashbacks and whatnot but the way people seem to be dismissing just because a fantastic documentary version already exists is sort of annoying but eh.

Those expecting The Fifth Estate 2.0 - this is a much, MUCH better film, although it is similar in a couple places (one particular sequence comes to mind). Main thing here is the performances though - JGL is excellent as expected, surprised how much I liked Woodley and Ifans too actually. Rest of the big names - Cage, Leo, were basically glorified cameos unfortunately but they were pretty good too, Quinto was slightly OTT in one scene but good in the rest.

Yes, it's a tad preachy in this classic Sone way (which seems to be what the reviews are bashing out at - Stone's tricks and flourishes dragging the film down - honestly didn't feel that they did at all) and what he does in the last few minutes is really gonna divide (film) people, but for what I'm guessing a whole bunch of people will see as the Snowden story, this is really solid. Maybe it could've been something more but it's solid and it works and it's good. Hell, the Swedish crowd seems to have bloody loved it if the packed out theatre, reactions and the applause at the end are any indication.

7/10

P.S. the theatre cocked up big time though - for the first 10-15 mins they showed a 2.40 crop of a 16:9 crop. like :wtf:.

[filmlover]

Pretty tepid and way too long, and startlingly safe for an Oliver Stone movie. There's nothing really bad about it, it's just bland so much of the time and doesn't do much beyond giving a simple pat on the back to the real Edward Snowden. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fine in the role, even though the decision to deepen his voice to mimic the real person proves less effective than if he had stuck with his natural one, while no one else in the talented cast really registers because the script by Stone and Kieran Fitzgerald underserves them. Just watch Citizenfour if you're really interested in learning about Snowden (who makes a fourth wall-breaking appearance at the end) instead. C

[Blankments]

Snowden completely undermines itself in its final minutes. First, it reveals Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance was actually average at best rather than good to great like the audience might think up to that point. Secondly, it relegates the biggest subplot of the movie's conclusion to a post-script slide. It's actively insulting. The rest of the movie isn't that bad, but it's also not good. At times, it's riveting, particularly in the first act, but after a while, it just gets mind-numbing and dull. It just feels like a bloated waste of time. The best aspect of the movie is surprisingly Nicolas Cage, who subtly elevates a very small role that show the great character actor he could be if he wasn't forced to take every role. Snowden has moments of fun, but ultimately is just an average biopic that tries to do too much, and thus, does too little. D+

 

Side-note: Quinto's supporting role also sadly revealed for this viewer he has fallen in the same trap as the late Leonard Nimoy: all I saw was Spock, and I'll admit that's entirely my fault. However, the writing in this for him was really generic, so I hope he gets a major role soon that completely takes him out that zone for me. I know he can do it.