not even nine minutes in to
The Last Duel -
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4244994/reference
and i am already laughing. This is a comedy, right? Right guys? Guys?
.. the castings of Affleck and Damon are ridiculous; neither has training to even begin approaching such a role. Adam Diver *also* isn't a great choice for this role, even though his acting is better than the other two. And because i rarely am short of praise for this man, he has the talent to work *with* other actors, instead of going above them.
Damon on the other hand, oh my god. Everything about him is bad, everything.
The fight scenes are horrendous, and the camerawork in general is atrocious for a film of this budget. You would think that Ridley FUCKING Scott, the man who directed American Gangster (9/10), Alien (9/10), Blade Runner (9/10) would know how to build a storyboard; this is the same man who made himself, by hand, the entire storyboard to Alien.
As an explanation of what i mean by this; let's say you are filming a medieval-setting film. You would have a few introductory shots where you show the peasantry, the livestock, the animals, etc and once the audience GETS IT, then you go back to framing actors as you would with any other film. There is no need to have the storytelling constantly interrupted by: shots of the cook in the kitchen; shots of the peasant pulling a cart, shots of the peasantry walking in the castle. I get it, we are in medieval times, i do not need to be constantly reminded, and, as a spectator, everything Scott focuses on some girl skinning a pig or stirring a pot, my brain thinks "is this a new character? Do i have to remember what this person is doing?".
Photography is also, once again, shit. Every interior shot is all yellow-ochre, because candlelight, duh. Every exterior shot is gray, because /nature/. Why is it that Harry Potter 1 gets to have decent indoor shots, but 100M Ridley Scott film doesn't?
And, even though they build these massive, expensive sets, then they do the fighting scenes, and it's something that a child would have thought up. A single sword blow defeats plate mail, and it's all about the fighting, rather than what the fighting means, if you recall that "Luke vs Vader" comparison to the prequel fights. I really do not care about random guy n.27 killing random guy n.41 regardless of how "recreation" it is.
Wanna see a meaningful fight scene?
The Name of The Rose. The Black Death. Excalibur - the one with the gay shining armors. Braveheart. All better than this film because they understand what filmmaking is about, and it's not about trying to make a documentary, it's about THIS:
My vote:
6/10 - boring characters, boring story, terrible acting, its only saving grace is Diver trying his best. (gets very slightly better at the very end)