Putin

I expected a movie about Putin to be bad, but I didn't think it would be this bad. It's neither a neutral biography nor a compelling drama-it's neither. The film can't decide whether it wants to be propaganda or a critical piece, and the result is a confusing mess that's both dull and pointless.

The acting is lifeless, the script is shallow, and the cinematography is a complete disappointment. Putin's character is either portrayed as an artificial hero or a cliché villain, both of which feel unrealistic and insulting to the audience's intelligence.

To be honest, I don't like Putin, but I disliked this movie even more. If it aims to be propaganda, it fails; if it tries to be critical, it fails again. It's unclear what it even wants to say. One of the worst biographical films I've ever seen-maybe the worst. Even a 1/10 would be generous.

I watched this whole movie in an Imax from start to finish. This is easily the worst movie I've ever seen. I see the reviews defending it all talk about it being psychological and cerebral. The problem with that opinion is that it's wrong. Having a movie revolve around the inner monologue between an AI man and his imaginary devil boy is neither cerebral nor historically accurate. The camera work is awful. The acting by almost everyone is awful. The movie is every sin Russia committed in order except through a sepia tone filter of inaccuracies and exaggerations. The movie is not unique in a good way, not even in an interesting way. After the brief kid Putin backstory and the, "intro" you are watching the same scene over and over again. Someone or something has more power than Putin, Putin's devil boy says to kill them, Putin makes them dead in a very anticlimactic way, Putin gets more power, repeat from Afghanistan to Ukraine for an hour and a half. This is not subversive or quirky or interesting. It's boring, bad storytelling, assumes A LOT of the unknown thoughts behind historical events, and could be shot better by a highschooler with an iphone. Except for Putin talking about Bill Clinton once there's like no actual foreign policy in the movie, barely any politics, no management or actual leading, no nuance look on Putin in either direction. Every decision Putin makes is based on what this imaginary devil boy says. The Director just assumes Putin is possessed by the Devil and has no personality. I'm not defending Putin but why make a movie about a politician in a very interesting position if all you're going to do is water him down to a demon? Why not just make a movie about the actual Devil at that point. I don't understand what this movie was trying to say or what it wants us to feel. I don't think any of these scenes played out remotely irl for the reasons the Director thinks they did. I don't know how you can manage to make a biography about one of the most well documented figures that feels mostly made up. I could overlook propaganda and fiction if it was entertaining or emotional, but it's just flat out boring and poorly made.

Just basically a giant sigma edit of how awesome and powerful Putin is. Which hides behind being smart and edgy. Truly a main character of modern world. The only thing missing was Drive Forever playing on the background throughout the movie. Vega actually believes that Putin is Russian John Wick, going around doing whatever he wants being an unstoppable relentless force. And he actually is victorious in the end, destroying the world and dying with a little coy smile on his face. And no amount of references to Orwell will get you back from that. I wanted to throw up while I watched it, literally.

I somehow made it to the end holding on to hope that Vega is just trying to show us how cringe is this belief that Putin is actually the sigma worldchanger, but no, it is he who believes that and the film is just cringe. I'm actually disgusted to write a review for this piece of garbage, but I'm hoping to save someone from watching it for themselves. Please, I'm begging you don't.

Most Westerners don't know much about Russia or Putin, and if you watch this hit piece, you'll know even less.

It's a complete work of fiction, with a few unimportant "facts" that are then dressed up with crazy fantasies to paint a portrait that is almost humorously evil.

Unfortunately, many people see these kind of movies and believe they are a biography, a historical record, and not just a vanity project from a person with an ax to grind. I noticed one reviewer actually referred to this as a "documentary".

If you are interested in history and geopolitics on a serious level, you will not be able to sit through this movie. It's that stupid. If you are satisfied to just read headlines of articles or whatever news you get through osmosis from the propaganda floating around, you may enjoy it.

I'd give it no stars, but I have to give it one.

Putin is a brilliantly bad "movie." Seriously, it takes a lot of talent to pull this off. I truly believe that the creators did a gargantuan job to make absolutely everything in this movie dumb, laughable and disconcerting. Like Scary Movie, but with the bonus of parasitizing on the tragedy of the Ukrainian people. As a cherry on top, the hard drive with the final cut was pissed on to give the film that artsy yellow filter. I won't dignify this incoherent garbage with analyzing any more of its features, because I've wasted enough time on it already.

In a distant future, we may live to see not only a handful of serious biopics about Putin, but also a new Armando Ianucci who will bring us the work similar to The Death of Stalin. But not now. Now, we only have Patryk Vega, the most hated filmmaker of Poland, and his abomination that will, God willing, shortly descend into obscurity. Make no mistake, it's not "so bad it's good" or a guilty pleasure, it's just guilty.