63% on Rotten Tomatoes
Chloe's thoughts: Signed, sealed and recommended by Chloe; Watch it in cinemas; Low-energy entertainment
Watch it if you: Want a fun action movie with cowboy shootouts, dynamite explosions, and the like; Like any of the cast members; Are a fan of other Antoine Fuqua films
The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the 1960 Western of the same name, which is in itself a remake of the film Seven Samurai (1954). I haven't seen either of these two, so I can't really comment on how the film holds up against them, but I actually had a really fun time with this (and brace yourselves, the word 'fun' will be used a lot in this blog).
In 1879, Bartholomew Bogue sieges a small town, making it very clear that he now runs this town, and the locals suffer under his rule. One lady, Emma Cullen, whose husband was murdered by Bogue, comes across "a duly-sworn warrant officer and licenced peace officer" Sam Chisolm, and hires him to take down Bogue. Chisolm in turn recruits six others to help him in this road of vengeance.
I was pretty excited for this film and it really did turn out to be a fun and exciting Western, and thank goodness the great cast wasn't a let down.
Denzel Washington as Sam Chisolm is pretty great in this. I don't really like him as an actor since it always feels like he is the same person in every single one of his movies, but I can really appreciate his dominating presence here.
Chris Pratt was also pretty great in this, but I felt like he too was, at times, just too much like normal Chris Pratt. It's not a bad thing, since he's super charismatic and fun, but it felt a bit awkward in this periodic Western setting.
But I think the stand out in this film was Peter Sarsgaard, who was fantastic as the villainous Bogue. This guy is just so creepy and intense, it was great. Was it a bit weird and over-the-top? Maybe, but hey, so is the rest of the film, so it actually fits quite well in the context of it all.
The rest of the cast were great too, but their characters majorly lacked development, particularly Ethan Hawke's character, Goodnight Robicheaux (and how cool of a name is that, seriously). I think he did really well with the lack of development, since we could see his story just through his acting alone, but it would have been great if they could focus a bit more on him.
Another major downside with the characters is that they seemed very unrealistically motivated. Obviously, as I said, this whole film is a bit over-the-top, and it's not like I'm looking for much realism and plot in a Western, but some of these characters gave absolutely no reason for wanting to join in the fight. And by some, I really mean everyone except Emma Cullen and Sam Chisolm. Actually, maybe Goodnight had a good reason too, but as I said, they didn't focus on his character all that much.
Having said that though, I didn't expect much out of this film except a FUN movie, and it certainly delivers there. It's not trying to be something it isn't; it's not trying to have a fantastic and unique plot, poignant character arcs, etc., but it's just trying to be a fun Western movie, and it was. Major props to Antoine Fuqua, the director for being able to balance fun action and great directing too (and I must admit I haven't seen Training Day but I have seen some of his most recent films).
The actual Western aspect of this film was pretty fun to explore, since the last true Western we got was some time ago (I can't remember any other ones after Django Unchained in 2012, and I don't think The Hateful Eight counts). The cinematography and camera work was pretty great; you get good scenery, good set pieces, and lots of nice and fun action sequences that weren't confusing to watch (looking at you, shaky cam from the Bourne series).
I think Fuqua did really well in building up to the finale; we get the context at the start, then the recruitment phase, then a little standoff and shootout to wet our tastebuds, then the preparation phase, then the finale. And I think it was a great build up, and even along the way there was some intense Western stare-offs happening, which felt awesome.
After the finale though, things kind of wrap up too quickly and the ending isn't as "magnificent" as it wants to be.
All in all, it was a fun and visually-exciting movie. The great cast, fantastic action sequences and even great cinematography all makes this a fun Western.
A few side notes:
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