Headhunters is visually and technically wonderful. But the story seemed, to me, to be a protracted adolescent escape fantasy played by grownups, with convolutions and complexity that sat like cold lard on my tongue.
It sort of reminds me of early Tintin comics, which were pretty much that; a rapid-fire litany of narrow escapes. I'm also sort of reminded of The Spanish Prisoner, which I didn't like for roughly the same reasons; complexity with no believable redemptive angle.
Speaking of which, there was a conspicuous absence of a true mythic dimension. I have to tread lightly here, as it's hard to justify this judgment call without spoilers. In a nutshell, we're supposed to believe that all our hero's bloody threads get tidied up neat and clean, and our hero is redeemed by love, and is able to return to pretty much his old life, except with his priorities arranged in a healthier way, and with a new commitment to fulfilling his wife's lifestyle expectations. But the whole exposition seemed very earthbound and tepid. Sorry, it just don't fly.
By way of comparison, I found Kill Bill did a better job of winning me over to the redemption of the blood-spattered hero. What does Kill Bill do better that Headhunters fails to do?
It sort of reminds me of early Tintin comics, which were pretty much that; a rapid-fire litany of narrow escapes. I'm also sort of reminded of The Spanish Prisoner, which I didn't like for roughly the same reasons; complexity with no believable redemptive angle.
Speaking of which, there was a conspicuous absence of a true mythic dimension. I have to tread lightly here, as it's hard to justify this judgment call without spoilers. In a nutshell, we're supposed to believe that all our hero's bloody threads get tidied up neat and clean, and our hero is redeemed by love, and is able to return to pretty much his old life, except with his priorities arranged in a healthier way, and with a new commitment to fulfilling his wife's lifestyle expectations. But the whole exposition seemed very earthbound and tepid. Sorry, it just don't fly.
By way of comparison, I found Kill Bill did a better job of winning me over to the redemption of the blood-spattered hero. What does Kill Bill do better that Headhunters fails to do?