Imagine this: you sit down to watch a movie, the trailer looks promising, the cast seems solid, and you’re actually excited. But just a few minutes in, one thought keeps echoing in your head: “I wish I’d never started this.”
That’s exactly how my experience with this film went.
Normally, I don’t have anything against book adaptations. In fact, if done right, they can become milestones in cinema history. Take The Lord of the Rings—even three-hour-long movies don’t feel enough, because the story deserves to be told in its entirety. But this film… it felt like someone picked a random handful of pages from the middle of a novel and rushed out a script. The characters never felt grounded, the plot didn’t make sense, and despite being two hours long, it somehow managed to feel incomplete, choppy, and flat.
The real issue, though, was how boring it was. And yes, I mean boring. Sometimes a movie can be slow-paced but still pull you in with its atmosphere. Not here. The minutes dragged on painfully, and the story just refused to flow. At one point I even thought, “Maybe this should’ve been a mini-series. At least then it would’ve had more room to breathe.” But honestly? I doubt even extra time could’ve saved this script.
And then there were the absurd bits… Take Jon Bernthal, for example. A well-known actor—you’d expect him to play a key role, right? Instead, he pops up for less than five minutes and then vanishes without leaving a single dent in the story. The film sets him up like he’s going to matter, and then never mentions him again. As a viewer, you just feel cheated.
Or that famous pool scene from the trailer. Our main guy (Rami Malek) goes after his wife’s killer. The setting: a rooftop pool, the perfect place for tension to build. But instead, it turns into a ridiculous engineering showcase. He uses some device to release pressure, shatters the glass, and dumps tons of water into the courtyard below. He easily could’ve killed an innocent bystander, but conveniently the courtyard is empty! To make it worse, the character clearly could’ve done the same thing with something much simpler—like an electric gadget. Instead of suspense, the scene just screamed nonsense.
At that point, I turned to my wife and asked, “Should we keep going?” She said yes. So, I spent the last 45 minutes scrolling on my phone while the screen filled with one spy cliché after another. Honestly, I can’t remember the last time a film bored me this much.
The verdict? A complete disappointment for me. Maybe others will enjoy it, and that’s fair. But if you value your time, I’d say push this one all the way to the bottom of your watchlist.