Review of The Assassin (2015) by Zacho D — 30 Sep 2015

VIFF Review: This is really shocking. If you want to cast in your ballad for the most overrated film of 2015, you might want to place your bets on "The Assassin". It won the Best Director award at "Cannes" this year and this is made by a great director, but besides the film's stunning cinematography and art direction, this film was just plain boring, You might think that a movie called "The Assassin" would have some some great action sequences right? Nope, they are only seconds long and are not special or entertaining at all and there are barely any in the film to begin with. Ok, so the story and performances must be really great then, like a more performance and story driven movie like "The grandmaster" from last year right? Wrong again, the story is as plan as day and we have seen it a thousand times. There are two lands at peace, but now they one side wants to attack the other. It's been done to fucking death and done far greater in other films. I'm really not sure what "The Assassin" is. I guess it's about an assassin who is order to kill a man in the other land who she was previously engaged to...but she can't. What a shocker. Sometimes even the camera runs far to long on a shot and you just want it to move the fuck on.

The good: cinematography, art direction, sound design, and ok performances,.

The bad: everything else.

I'm afraid to say that "The Assassin" is a mega disappointment, especially since I was anticipating this as one of the best films of the year, but in fact, it truthfully is one of the worst.