Carter - Netflix Action Movie Review
Summary
The idea of the film “Carter” was very promising and attention-grabbing, especially for lovers of action films and thrillers. However, the execution and direction of this film just weren’t satisfying enough. On the principle: “You wanted a massive behead?” You have it, we give you 2 hours with almost no rest ”. However, what’s too much is unhealthy.
“Carter” is a textbook example of an action movie whose ambitions have proven overwhelming.
Contents
Carter – a description of the plot of the Netflix movie
“Carter” opens with a full-exposure introduction in which we learn that the Korean Peninsula is struggling with a terribly contagious outbreak of the “DMZ virus.” Viral infection creates “animal-like behavior” and increases violent tendencies in those infected.
North and South Korean leaders are working together to create an antibody treatment using the blood of Dr. Jung’s daughter named Ha-na, who was cured of the infection thanks to her father’s research. However, Dr. Jung and Ha-na disappear while being transported to North Korea, where the doctor will continue his research and mass-produce a cure for the virus in North Korea.
In the meantime, the main character of the film, Carter, wakes up suddenly and hears a mysterious voice in his head that instructs him. It turns out that he has a mission to fulfill, and in his mouth there is … a bomb.
Carter – an action movie set in one shot?
I admit, such an introduction to action cinema, as classic as it attracts attention, is quite good. The more so because a moment later we will observe a bloody and crazy carnage in a Korean bathhouse, in which the main character cuts down the taboos of bad guys in their briefs. And from that moment to the very end, “Carter” is actually one big never-ending sequence of actions.
The creators figured it out in such a way that their film was to be a long sequence of events in real time and to present the audience the impression of watching a movie shot in one shot. So without any cuts. Of course, in reality it was not so, and what is worse, the authors lacked the appropriate formal skills to even efficiently mark the moments where the cuts take place.
Also no, “Carter” is not a movie made in a single shot. There are a whole lot of fragments in which even the not necessarily trained eye of a person who does not know film production will notice editing works. And this editing is simply terrible! At times it seemed to be semi-amateurish. You can literally see the sloppy, poorly fitting and sloppy transitions between shots with the naked eye. In addition, some of them combined real shots with those created on computers, which turned out to be even cheaper.
Carter – interesting idea, poor execution
Purely theoretically and on paper, “Carter” seemed to be an interesting idea from the formal point of view. Creating an action movie shot in one shot is as ambitious as it is a risky task, and I would certainly like to watch something like that one day. But for this task you need production virtuosity, meanwhile, the makers of the film “Carter” are at most moderately skilled cinema enthusiasts, not filmmakers with exceptional skills.
Besides, “Carter” is not only a “mock shot without cuts”, but also a restless camera that literally travels like crazy around the events presented in the film. Here we have crazy transitions from indoor shots to outdoor spaces shot from drones flying in any direction. Action sequences jump from staircases, to streets, then vehicle chases, inside vehicles, to the plane and falling off the plane.
In a word, in the movie “Carter” the creators threw into the cauldron probably all possible permutations of action scenes that can be invented and showed them almost in one sequence. Some of them are so absurdly stupid that some of you may spoil the screening. Personally, I often drop out when I see action movies that at some point move too far from the laws of physics (that’s what comic book adaptations are for me).
But again, on the concept level, some of them are really interesting and impressive, embarrassing the creativity of the much more expensive Hollywood action movies. Unfortunately, however, the execution of everything is a storm. The filmmakers clearly embarked on a task that exceeded them.
In the movie “Carter” there are too many ideas for realization, many of them were created with the use of poor CGI and thus the whole thing is watched more like a cut-scene from a video game (from the Playstation 3 era) than a full-fledged feature film.
Add to that a crazy camera that turns in all directions and glides like a dove on Extasy plus a hellishly imprecise editor with evident ADHD, you will get an action movie that is almost impossible to watch without dizziness and symptoms of motion sickness. The fact that “Carter” lasts more than two hours doesn’t help either. Korean filmmakers probably think that a film that is under 120 minutes is not a full-length feature, because I don’t remember the last time I watched a local production that lasted less than two hours.
Read also: The best film series that have drastically lost in quality over time
Carter – movie rating
On some level, “Carter” seems to me to be a movie made for those who still don’t have enough action in the action cinema. On the basis of: “You wanted a massive behead? You have it, we give her 2 hours with almost no rest ”. However, what’s too much is unhealthy. In addition, a terrible assembly, a lot of absurdities and flashiness over efficiency spoil what could have been a really electrifying ride without a handlebars.
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