More specific to your review, I’ll just chime in that I also recommend it, and truly hesitate to say that it was slightly below my expectations. This is because I had ridiculously high expectations. I just thought it looked incredible in the trailer, and I also love Natalie (her accent wasn’t as good as Keira’s – not a fair comparison, Keira’s British – but definitely tolerable.) So keep that in mind.

As for the unclear message, that itself might be a statement on the nature of vendettas, or revenge. It is considered a sin by God, yet it often seems like the right thing to do. Of course in this case, the bad guys did some horrific things and deserved a good smackdown. But you can still question the manner in which it was carried out, and the effect (intended or otherwise) it may have, long term.

Your conclusions based on your personal experience in the movie industry mirrors something screenwriting guru Robert McKee says: studios are generally using the best scripts they can find. They aren’t saying, “Yeah, I could produce a movie based on a better script, but I’m picking a crappy one because the movie is targeted at idiots.” Of course, it may seem that way to audiences! But they really are producing the best stuff they can find. In other words, there is a lot of room in Hollywood for great scripts, if you can write one. But man, is it tough.

Being that this is my first movie review, let me preemptively deal with my soon to be detractors. First, no, I do not think that I could write a great movie (but I know a guy that I am certain will). Neither would I be a great director or producer. That stuff takes a bunch of skills that I don?t have. Also, I don?t think I would be a very good actor. To clarify, I don?t think I would be able to portray the depth of a character that was feeling extreme emotions. I am fine on camera though, so I could probably do just fine in the movie biz if they ever needed a character actor to play a middle aged white geek with a bad hair line and a surprising amount of baby fat for someone in their late 30?s.

My point though is that I don?t feel that a person actually has to be good at something to recognize greatness or lack of talent in others. This is not true only for the entertainment industry, though for some reason it is one of the only sectors of our society that has critics. If you try on a poorly designed shoe, you don?t need to be a cobbler to recognize its flaws in either design or construction. When you see a levee break, you don?t need to be an engineer to justly comment on its poor implementation. When you see the head of FEMA demonstrate what is wrong with political appointments to leadership positions, it is ok to comment on his grand ineptitude, even if you never managed a horse show in your life.

In closing, I will share a short story of one of my first dealings with the movie biz in Hollywood. I was a technical consultant for a movie. It paid quite well and was lots of fun. I was asked to add credibility and realism to a script in an area where I am an expert. I did that, with the enthusiasm and excitement that any virgin to the industry would naturally have. Thing is, a few weeks after I finished my work, they fired some of the key people in the development of the movie. Of course, they still had the actors on contract, the costumes, and the set was mostly built, so in typical Hollywood style, they just paid someone to write a new story that could use what they had on hand. The movie was an embarrassing and craptastic formulaic mess, yet it sadly was par for the course for most of the stuff they put on the big screen. Every time I hear the movie industry whining about movie attendance being down, I think back to that and just shake my head.