Review of The Lost City of Z (2017) by Dan D — 29 Apr 2017

A mans obsession on finding the lost city in the amazon can achieve his goal. The Lost City of Z is an adventurous drama film based on a British explorer Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam). I thought the film was fast paced and explored several years and the events attempts of Fawcett going out in the amazon to map survey and finding artifacts about a lost city.

The plot follows Percy, who is assigned to survey the amazon and to follow a river path that is in uncharted territories. Costin (Robert Pattinson) is also with him on this journey, were they will come across indigenous tribes. Percy made the sacrifice to go on this several year journey, leaving his pregnant wife Nina (Sienna Miller) behind, along with his son Jack (Tom Holland). This struggle on taking this assignment is difficult on being away from his family but he will claim his family's name, if he does this task. Percy and Costin traveling through the rivers, coming across a tribe that is cannibalistic on eating their own with a belief of setting their spirit free when this tradition is done. They reach the rivers end only to see pottery artifacts that Percy believes there was once an advanced civilizations and a lost city. They arrive home, only to see his son all grown up and his wife. His obsession on finding this lost city which could have gold and ancient artifacts gets worse. With the support of his son Jack, who is willing to go with his father to go searching for this city.

What I liked about the film is it is well paced when it begins with Percy in the military and getting offered to go on an expedition. Many years go by, and seeing Percy and his relationship with his wife, slowly getting distant when he is gone for so many years. When he is home, his desire to go back out is always putting his own family in second to this obsession. The film does have an incredible tone and direction seeing Percy and Costin traveling in the amazon with tribes that are attacking them and the eerie wilderness. The cinematography work was impressive.

The cast did great. Charlie Hunnam delivered a good performance with a characters obsession that he will never give up his dreams on this search. Robert Pattinson also had a better performance as well. Sienna Miller did great. Along with Tom Holland and his short appearance.

What I did not liked about the film is I did feel like the movie was quite long. It did have a perfect flow with the pace and storytelling. But it started to slow down in the final half hour of the movie when Percy was giving up and his son motivated him to go back into this expedition.

Overall, The Lost City of Z is a good adventure drama film with great performances, direction, and plot. Especially with this being based on an actual explorer and the events that led to his disappearance in 1925.