Review of The International (2009) by Christopher W — 11 Apr 2012

Has occasional fifteen minute stretches of excitement but is mostly dull and goes out of its way to explain everything. The writing is unnatural and unrealistic, and sometimes so generic that you can actually see the lines coming before their said, and predict who will die in the next scene.

There is no suspense in situations that aren't rooted in reality, because verisimilitude is essential to being entranced in something. This film doesn't achieve that, and that is its unfortunate downfall.

Despite this, the action sequences are good, and Clive Owen is convincing. Also, the big problem with conspiracy thrillers is that they assume that corporations are capable of these sorts of things, which they aren't.

This whole idea of "everyone's in on it" is never true, and that's why it's hard to make a good conspiracy movie. This movie tries to be smart while it's blatantly obvious it isn't.

I mean seriously, how many scenes of people running around yelling techno-babble to electronic music does one movie need?