I enjoyed this movie--but a lot of that was probably due to my familiarity with the narrative and characters and locations from the book and going all "aha!" from the little world-building nuggets that tie to the rest of the book and series.
I really think all the Hester flash-back stuff should have been a 5-10 minute prologue. They had a choice with the prologue--set up the world or set up Hester's character. They went with the first one for the prologue--and I totally get it and it's in keeping with the book--but the movie starts to suffer as the story progresses because Hester's supposed to be the main character but she never really FEELS like the main character, especially as the plot gets more jumbled with extra characters and plot twists/turns, etc. I mean, we really lose focus on Hester in the third act, and that's unfortunate because then nothing really resonates in the climax or denouement.
We get Hester's back-story in two separate flashbacks and the movie totally grinds to a halt with these, even though the material they contain is quite good. It's just a very awkward structural thing that worked fine in the book but doesn't work at all here. We're supposed to be already invested in Hester at this point and we're simply not, and I don't think it's as much Hera Hilmar's fault (though I do think maybe she's not quite enough a magnetic or physical presence for the part) as the way the story is structured. I think if we had been given the backstory up-front and then the movie kept a bit closer to Hester's character arc as it goes through its spectacular contortions, the film would have worked much better.
It's a shame because there really is a lot to love about this movie. Some of the scenes are just bonkers stuff (I was totally enamored with the "PREPARE TO INGEST" prologue even if I think it should have happened later in the film, and anything with Shrike, and the Scuttlebutt through slave market scenes). The FX are stylized and not always convincing but lots of fun, the design elements are really great. The sound mix, unfortunately, often was forced to subdue to Junkie XL's utterly bombastic score, which has some nice motifs for London and Shrike and a couple nice softer passages, but far too often ends up sounding generic because Holkenborg is just laying it on so thick. At one-point we hear Shrike's bad-ass theme buried under layers upon layers of drums and synth choirs and it's just like, dude, take it easy.
I think Sheehan is perfectly likable as the male lead, even though the movie's not sure what to do with him half the time other than have him act nervous or talk about how he wants to be an aviator, and Hugo chews scenery nicely as Thaddeus Valentine and there are some very choice elements involving his storyline (especially its finish) but it's not his best role, to be sure. The movie definitely feels truncated (not that I want it to be longer, but it needed to be more efficient in what it focused on and how it told its story). Valentine's daughter has a storyline, which was far cooler in the book and the climax of which in the movie must have hit the cutting room floor. There is a fairly important secondary character that simply disappears from the movie. And then we have the Anti-Tractionist fighter pilots, who the film barely spends any time with and yet I think we're supposed to care about, or at least know who they are. This was something the movie actually added, can you believe it--did The Hobbit dwarves teach PJ and Boyens nothing? In an already overstuffed film, about half-way through we're introduced to a diverse gang of rebels and I don't think the movie even takes a second to give us all their names, but then they play vital roles in the final battle. Blink a couple times and you'll miss Frankie Adams from The Expanse.
So many missed opportunities, really. There are so many moments where you almost feel it working, but then here comes a poorly placed flashback or a scene that requires your emotional involvement when the movie hasn't done enough to earn that--and the editing and pacing overall is just wonky. It's a shame, though, because Rivers does bring a panache to the FX sequences and as rote as the final battle is, I was surprisingly into it. And it's a very cool and unique world--you've seen this plot before, but not this world, and when the movie spends some time on its more original components--like the Shrike/Hester relationship--it feels like something new and kind of awesome, actually. Unfortunately, most of the characters don't translate to screen that well (apart from Shrike and maybe Anna Fang) and while the film didn't make any big changes to the book's story, every little change it did make made the main story feel more conventional and predictable.
I do hope everyone checks it out at some point, though. As far as sub-40%-on-RT movies go, it's gotta be one of the better ones.
