I’m sure that there are hundreds of reviews and articles on Sinners by now that are far better and articulate than whatever I’m gonna come up with so instead, I’m going to address some of the critiques and also some of the praises that the movie received and see where does it really stand among the original movies in the last few years.
I’ve only watched a trailer before the release of the movie and didn’t know anything about the plot but the names involving such as Ryan Coogler and Micheal B. Jordan was enough for me to put it on my watchlist. My initial thought on the movie was that yeah, it’s good and I enjoyed it, but when I decided to see what other people think about it whether on YouTube or Reddit or any other website really it was clear that people either think the movie is a masterpiece or that it’s severely overrated and rushed in many areas.
One of the complaints I heard was how this movie feels like two separate stories meshed into one and how the second half doesn’t feel like a follow up to the first half. I have to say, when I rewatched parts of the movie I think that’s a valid point and I just can’t help to think that the story of SmokeStack twins was actually enough for a whole movie and it would’ve been interesting to see them following their plans and building their dream up.
With the introduction of Remmick and the Vampire side of the movie, we descend from what could’ve been a masterpiece to a fun supernatural horror movie. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a lot of fun it’s just the first half of the plot about the twins and Sammie and even Mary, which they all crushed it by the way, I was more interested in their stories and their character dynamics rather than the blood sucking monsters trying to add members to their cult while singing a song with disturbing lyrics(as cool as that was).
Remmick was one of the highlights of the movie mostly because of Jack O’Connell’s performance and how cool he looks with his eyes shining red, but his character also carries one of movie’s weaknesses (depends on your view) and that’s the lack of backstory on his character and his mysterious appearance in the movie. I know that most of this is intentional and Coogler wanted the audience to theorise about the how or the why of Remmick’s arrival in the town, but when you couple this with the other complaint which was about how the movie feels like two smashed to one, I think it’s a valid criticise, mostly because the only build up that we get for Remmick’s existence in the movie is the little intro about how some musicians or really heavenly music in general can absorb these type of entities which might be enough for most people, but for me when you combine this with some other factors, it just seems like this was not going to be a Vampire movie and the idea was kind of forced in the middle the writing process, but I need to clarify again that this is not a major issue for me it’s just something that bothered me a little after watching it and thinking about it for a while.
There are some other criticisms on the plot like how Grace inviting them in was a little out of place and out right dumb! I didn’t necessarily feel that it was unjustified but I do believe the plot devices in this movie are a little too obvious and on the nose and most of the time you can see that in order for a movie to happen and the plot to progress, this specific thing needs to happen and it does indeed happen, not to say that this isn’t the case with most movies but from a movie with this much praise and a freaking 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, you just can’t help to expect more.
This takes me to my last point which is, Sinners is Overrated!! Now, I know out of two people that gonna read this most likely both of them will disagree with this, but the amount of hype around this movie and all the 10/10 from critiques, makes you think you’re gonna witness a “Best Movie of The Century" type of film that this clearly isn’t! I’ll be more than happy to read any opinions on the movie in the comments and lastly, thanks for your time.