Red Sparrow

Story/Screenplay: (9/10) Effective spy fiction. Very unpredictable. Duration/Tempo: (6/10) At 2 hours and 20 minutes, this is a long movie that felt more like 2 hours. Might have benefited by a bit of trimming. Cast & Crew: (9/10) Jennifer Lawrence owned this role. Well done. Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Jeremy Irons also stood out. Summary: (7/10) A little slow at times, but was engaging overall.

Watching this film adapted from the novel felt like deja vu of some good novels adapted into TV series or movies, either the scripts were not good enough to match up the original novels, or the leading key characters turned out terrible miscast. Michael Connelly's "Harry Bosch" series was totally ruined by the wrong cast of the guy who played Bosch in a lousy TV series, all the supporting actors, especially the female ones were even worse, female detectives or female city employees all looked in a fashion show, with perfect hairstyles, over the top make-up, tailored costumes...But worst of all, is the miscast of Harry Bosch, completely ruined the personification of the large-than-life Harry Bosch in the novels. The other worst nightmarish miscast was Tom Cruise played Jack Reacher of Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Tom Cruise completely ruin the image of Jack Reacher in the novels.

Here, in "Red Sparrow", we got the same situation again. Either Jennifer Lawrence looked too old or the actress who played her mother looked too young. If you have read the two original novels, "Red Sparrow" and "Palace of Treason", Jennifer Lawrence didn't look or feel like what the leading character in the novels, far from it. Then Joel Edgerton especially, a wrong cast. Not only he didn't make me feel like the leading male character in the novel, he didn't have any believable chemistry with Jennifer Lawrence. The roles they played in this movie didn't click or sparkle to become lovers. The man Joel Edgerton played should be more attractive or handsome, a guy so smart and so aggressively headstrong ambitious, sometimes even careless but with toughness and guts. The novels showed it, but Edgerton didn't even come close. Furthermore, all the supporting actors didn't even have the chance to show us they are A-list actors, because the screenplay was not good at all.

I've found myself very impatient to sit tight to watch along. I even constantly lost interest to focus on the screen, distracted a lot. I totally agree with the low ratings and all those negative movie critics given so far to this movie. I had the same experience when I watched "Atomic Blonde".

Rent it when DVD comes out, not worth paying mucho dineros for cinema seats.

I read a lot of negative reviews of this before I saw it, and although I was fascinated I was also dreading the horrifying torture scenes I'd heard about. But when I did see it myself I found it interesting, although I wish that it had been faster paced. I'd never seen a character quite like Dominika before. She was much more interesting than "Salt" and much more real than "Atomic Blonde". The characters were very memorable and believable and I am glad that I saw the film.

Great plot - great twists - gritty - great acting by Jennifer Lawrence and Joel Edgerton. Amongst the best spy thrillers I have seen. Very satisfying conclusion.

There is never a dull moment in the movie. JLaw did an amazing job although I am not much of a fan. I didn't care for her accent since she is speaking English in the movie anyway so who cares. For me her acting would have been as good without the accent as well. She portrays a cold and ruthless character and her expressions are enough to convey the message. Matthias Schoenaerts was also impressive. Ending took me by surprise. It could have been a much better movie if all Russian men were not portrayed as evil in the movie and all CIA as heroes and if graphic scenes were reduced. Nevertheless I found it more entertaining than Bond movies.