Summary
Ben Affleck has mind powers and they are so good he has forgotten about them.
What happened to Robert Rodriguez? Honestly once upon a time he was my favourite director and I would rush out for each of his films opening weekend, but now he is just making fairly subpar family films and stuff like this.
I will admit the idea of Ben Affleck trying to find his lost daughter going up against a cult of people with mind control abilities is genuinely interesting and if the film had stuck to the that then maybe this review would be different. However, the film seems to want to compete with the mind games of a Nolan film and adds in twist after twist to such a point that any shred of promise is wasted and the film becomes incomprehensible. This film wants so badly to be a Nolan esque film but it just doesn’t have a smart enough script for it.
The ending is also incredibly terrible and feels like the most convenient writing I have ever seen in recent cinema. The ending makes no sense, but everything after the first half an hour is like that, and also tries to go for a happy ending even though nothing in the tone of the film or the narrative suggests that to be appropriate.
Ben Affleck is doing his usual moody dad routine, and that worked for me here and I think it fit the character well, better than it did in some of his other recent work. The acting is all fine, no one particularly sticks out for good or for bad.
Overall, if this is the quality of his contemporary output Robert Rodriguez should retire.
2.5/5
Pros.
The premise is sound
Affleck fits the role
It is watchable
Cons.
It is a stupid film that thinks it is an intelligent one
It makes no sense
The ending is truly awful
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Another Millennial Reviewer 