It's been a while since I've done a rant review. I was planning to actually make this review in a normal format as it's not the worse I've seen by a long shot. However, a lot of the problems and issues come from the story and characters, which would require me to extensively spoil. I'm not going to lie, there are so many poor decisions that would just make you asking if this is a real movie or not.
Positives:
- The best thing in this entire movie and perhaps the real reason why you should watch it is Benicio del Toro's Lado. Holy crap, this guy is excellent. Lado is a ruthless enforcer for the cartel and does some pretty messed-up stuff such as raping O, abusing his wife, and killing innocent people, but he's probably the best character in the film and to a degree, likeable. He feels the most human strangely despite his morals, which is mainly due to the main characters being very bad, which we will get to. Basically, everyone will love Lado, regardless of what they thought of the movie.
- John Travolta's Dennis. He's not in the movie much, but this is his best role in recent years. A corrupt DEA agent who works with the main characters and Lado, he is just trying to get the best deal out of his life. The scene where he and Lado meet is just fantastic. He reminds me of Saul Goodman from "Breaking Bad" and practically emulates that same energy.
- The cinematography by Dan Mindel is pretty good. Lots of wide shots of the environments and the tight shots of the exteriors such as the torture room and O's cell.
- The ending for Lado and Dennis. The best characters surprisingly get a happy ending with Lado fleeing to work for another cartel and Dennis scoring the biggest bust of his career with Elena's arrest. The ending as a whole though isn't perfect though as we get to in the negatives.
Negatives:
- The film's biggest flaw are the main characters. They are just way too flat, cliched, and cartoony in a gritty movie. First, there's Taylor Kitch's Chon, a hardened Iraq veteran with no humanity inside him. What a likeable character, huh? Aaron Johnson's Ben is probably the most likeable of the main characters, but he's just a hippie botanist who doesn't believe in violence. While Ben could have worked out well as a character, the acting and character change doesn't work at all. Like, you think after burning an innocent man alive, he would be sobbing or something, but no, emotionless it is. But, the worst character in the film is Blake Lively's O. Where to begin? First off, she narrates the entire movie with an annoying, dry voice and poor puns that it grates on you. Second, her character is just completely unlikeable. She's basically a druggy slut who loves both guys, though she clearly prefers Ben more. They attempt to give you sympathy for her as they try to give a relationship with her mom, but we never see the mom to begin with. It just doesn't make sense why the characters, even Salma Hayak's Elena, give her any sympathy. When she claims that she might be dead at the beginning of the movie, the audience is just praying that it will be the case.
- The story has no direction and opens up dumb plot holes and subplots that go nowhere. The deal that Ben and Chon disagree on is actually a very good and fair deal, but for some reason, dumbass Chon has a thick skull. The character of Estaben, a cartel member who has a sense of humanity, goes completely unused as Lado kills him for literally giving O a glass of milk and being "too sensitive" The film seemed to give the direction that he would help O or fall in love with her or something, but it goes nowhere. What's worse is that Lado kills him for being too soft on O, only for Elena to move her to her estate. Like, why? Elena and O start to bond in an unrealistic matter, which appears to be relative to the story, only for them to hate each other once Chon and Ben kidnap Elena's daughter. The story just doesn't know how to move forward in a coherent matter.
- Oliver Stone's directing. For a guy who has directed multiple Oscar-nominated films, this film doesn't help his case. For the most part, it's just pretty average outside of the nice shots. He does get intensity in certain scenes, but what ruins his credibility is the editing. Not only are there some pretty random cuts, but Stone decides to thrown in some filters every now and then for literally no reason. You think that this is some arthouse or first-time directing job from a new face, but it's in fact a seasoned director who clearly needs to retire before he embarrasses himself.
- The ending. Even if you never heard of this film, you might have heard about the ridiculous ending. It starts with the characters doing a hostage exchange for O and Elena's daughter. Of course, things go wrong and a shootout begins with Elena and Lado getting killed, while Ben gets shot in the throat. As O is weeping over him, Chon decides to overdose everyone as they apparently can't live without one another. Ok, standard ending where everyone dies, which is a blessing as the main characters bite the dust. Until O with her annoying narration reveals that what we saw was what she imagined the ending was going to be. Yeah, a bait and switch ending. The real ending has Lado drive off during the exchange as he gives up Elena and the others to Dennis and the DEA. Elena gets sent to prison and Dennis allows the others to be released, albeit their marijuana business shut down. O closes off the narration with some spiritual bullshit and a Beatles cover. As much as I love how Lado and Dennis manage to get the better half of the deal in the actual ending, I can't simply forgive the movie for literally having a fake ending in their movie. Also, having the main characters alive and well doesn't really help give the movie any reason for pulling off a fake, bad ending.
"Savages" is a film that part of me wants to like, but can't forgive all of the poor decisions made throughout. From the horrible main characters and O's narration throughout the entire movie, plotlines going nowhere with a contrived nature to create a story as a whole, Stone's directing and editing being very amateur-level for such an acclaimed filmmaker, and the ending being one of the face-slapping moments in cinema history. The only redeemable qualities of the film is the cinematography and the performances and characters of Lado and Dennis. Honestly, I wished that the movie was about these two and have a cat and mouse story attached to them with the reveal of their partnership being the twist ending that we deserved, unlike the final product that we got. The thing is, I do kind of recommend this movie because of Benicio del Toro and John Travolta alone. However, I must warn you that watching their amazing performances will mean you must suffer through annoying characters and a hair-pulling story.
Verdict: 4.5/10. Watch for Lado, forget everything else.
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