Barry
Sonnenfeld reteamed with Will Smith. Sounds like a good idea
doesn't it? So what went wrong?
Lets
start with Salma Hayek, am I the only one who gets a huge
sense that her part has been cut to a shred? Was her acting
or her lines really that bad that her role had to be reduced
to little more than a cypher. It was pretty obvious that her
role was intended to be the third lead in the Movie but she
is in hardly any scenes and even then just as a plot device
to move the story on. Shame. Barry Sonnenfeld has a reputation
for if he thinks something doesnt work in a movie the he will
remove it, what must he have thought when he cut most of her
part? What did she think when it was cut? Was her role not
intended to be similar to Jodie Fosters role in Maverick,
but Salma Hayek appears so infrequently there is no opportunity
for a great deal of interaction between her, Will Smith &
Kevin Kline. Surely three actors as charismatic as these three
would have made for some very funny scenes?
Its
rumoured that $180 Million was spent on this Movie. Did most
of that money end up on the cutting room floor too? Yes you
can see that to create a legless Kenneth Branagh and a huge
mechanical spider would cost, but that much? Personally for
that amount of money I expect to be amazed but it all just
felt so pedestrian.
Kenneth
Branagh had his finest ham actor hat on throughout this movie,
you could almost feel that he was going to have as much fun
as possible with his role and be as cheesy as possible. Was
he frightening, as all good movie villains should be? In a
word, No.
Maybe
that is another thing wrong with this Movie, were they trying
for it to be deliberately cheesy? and be a knowing pastiche?
Again think they failed on that too. Cheese has a very fine
line betwen brie and cheddar, and this film crossed that line
totally. Knowing pastiches can be great if the audience is
clued in that it is a pastiche but I do not think the audience
could have figured that out.
Back
to the script, what little there was of it. How much rewrites
did the script have was it overworked, or was the cocnept
so slim that it would have been impossible to fully flesh
it out to a full length movie. High concept is great, as this
movie so obviously is high concept, but does high concept
not need a good story to back it up.
Its
a shame that this film did not fully succede in its aims.
The concept sounds like a fun one, Will Smith is an effective
leading man, Kevin Kline is a great supporting actor, and
Barry Sonnenfeld is a very effective director as he proved
so well with Addams Family Values and Men In Black.
Guess
Wild Wild West just lacked that hint of inspiration that all
good movies need. Just hope if Will Smith and Barry Sonnenfeld
reteam again that they are able to find that spark again
Tall
Guy
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