All right, so before I launch into this let me say one thing: When I went to see this yesterday, I was stoned out of my mind on pain meds and they were making me drowsy. That said, I'm not sure if it was the drugs that made me not enjoy the movie or if I just didn't enjoy it.
In my opinion, it was just an average film.
I learned the hard way not too get too hyped up about a film (Attack of the Clones, Spider-Man 3) so I wasn't getting my hopes up about this one. Nevertheless, I wanted to like it a lot. The casting was the firth thing that made me excited. I really didn't think a movie could be bad if it had Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard and Billy Crudup in it, but--in my opinion--this film proved me wrong.
I never really felt a strong connection to the characters. I didn't buy how Depp's character and Cotillard's character hit it off so well.
The handheld thing I could take or leave, but in the few film classes I've took the view on shooting something handheld has always been a sign of hurriedness and laziness. The thing about the camera work that really upset me was how grainy it looked in some night shots toward the end of the film.
And another thing, I know Dillinger was supposed to be loved--almost idolized--by the public, but I didn't really get that vibe from the film. There were a few scenes of Depp being his charismatic self, but nothing he did really screamed 'hero of the little people' to me.
Now, if you read through all of that and want to have an intelligent discussion about my views, feel free. But if you just skipped to this paragraph I'll just restate: I thought Public Enemies was an average film.
