After a corrupt gold baron besieges the small mining town of Rose Creek, widow Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) sets out to search for help and meets Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), a bounty hunter with a dark past who promises to assemble a posse of scoundrels to fight for her righteous cause.
This Remake of a remake by director Antoine Fuqua has massive problems living up to the pedigree of its predecessors. Fuqua tries to replicate his fast-paced action style (Training Day, The Equalizer) in the western mold, and his quick cuts and heavy editing jarringly don’t fit the genre. Because no shot lasts more than a few seconds, there’s an obvious disconnect that keeps us from determining what the geography is between characters. And the result is a western with action sequences that are more frustrating than thrilling. To make matters worse, although Fuqua cut his teeth building authentically gritty urban thrillers, this film’s cast is surprisingly clean, sporting modern haircuts and dust-free costumes that betray the Old West aesthetic. The lack of attention to detail even extends to the look of the film itself – it’s amazing how Fuqua managed to produce cinematography that’s drab and lifeless in Arizona’s sweeping, majestic desert and mountain scenery.
The disappointment continues with Fuqua’s inability to motivate his actors to rise to the level of the two previous Sevens. Washington delivers a lethargic performance and seems disinterested in the material, and Chris Pratt struggles to step outside his comfort zone, playing a one-note gambler that’s a rehash of his quick-witted misanthrope type, the same role he’s been playing since Guardians of the Galaxy. The rest of the cast fare much better, especially Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio who try their best to bring life to their underwritten parts, but overall, the script struggles to rise above stereotype and cliché. The screenwriter, Nic Pizzolatto, gave us a magnificent TV series in 2014’s True Detective, but here he careens from serious to campy, often within the same scene.
While Quentin Tarantino’s foray into westerns has been admittedly uneven and messy, at least he has a firm grasp on the look and feel of the genre. By comparison, Antoine Fuqua doesn’t capture either the beautiful grandeur of the Old West or the complex characters that inhabited it. It’s quite obvious he’s just not the same caliber director as John Sturges or Akira Kurosawa, and his remake is a poor imitation of their efforts.
-Mike
-Mike
