ftpdnb102

Out of three reviews, two of them are gushing 10-star from people who only signed up to IMDB a week or two ago and have no activity other than leaving those reviews. Don't trust them.

I found the the overall idea to be more original than most movies made lately, and even the big plot twist was good, and (when it was in theaters so nobody knew about it already) there were still possibilities plausible for what the twist _might_ have been.

I didn't care for the magic routine toward the end. It seems like the actual performances they were doing started out good but then just became spectacle with no real point.

I was also a bit annoyed that the magic was special effects and not actual stage magic, and some of it was implausible, in particular the mesmerism: They describe a full _superpower_ like The Shadow, not a stage mentalist.

But DO watch this one. And ignore the sequel.

This is a typical sort of non-action British spy-craft kind of thing. The main character is an Everyman thrown into things and speaks a message of people just doing the right thing can change the world for the better, and echos the adage that for evil to prevail all that is needed is for good people to do nothing.

The acting is good, as is the directing and pacing. What lost a star for me was that the plot is a bit hard to follow. I've seen recent action movies where the plot is ignored with the idea that it's just action happening according to some formula the viewers already know. For this kind of non-action movie, the plot is rather more important. It wasn't _bad_ mind you, just wasn't up to the normal standards for this kind of thing. I suppose the book was more complex in this regard.