Red Sparrow Quck Movie Review
Trailers sure can make movies look good. For me, this is what happened with Red Sparrow. Jennifer Lawerance plays a Russian Ballerina who gets injured and is forced into being a Russian spy by her uncle, so she can help pay for her sick mother. While on her mission she runs into an American spy who changes her mind into helping the American catch the Russian mole. This movie takes you on the journey of deciding whom can you trust and whom can you not trust. It is a movie with twists and turns.
I am very surprised this movie was not rated NC-17 for the severity of the nudity, sex, and rape in this film. Red Sparrow is filled with lots of uncomfortable sex scenes. Not only do you see Jennifer Lawerance's breasts and butt you will also see many men's penises as well. There is a lot of violence including some pretty graphic rape and sex scenes. I am all for movies that have sex and violence in them as long as it has a purpose. Yes, the sex and violence in this film have a purpose. The violence in this film is important because it shows the vicious side of Russia and being a spy. It also shows what it is like to be a woman in that field.
Jennifer Lawerence's performance, I felt wasn't her greatest work. It defiantly showed how uncomfortable she was with being nude and having to do the sex scenes. I don't blame her. I would be the same way. In Hungar Games, you can see the emotions of fear but in Red Sparrow, she was just flat. Throughout the film, there were many times when she lost her accent. Joel Egerton, the American spy, didn't have much chemistry with Jennifer's character. To me, Joel Edgerton didn't have a spy look. Maybe I am visualizing James Bond too much in my head.
SPOILER ALERT- Sitting there for 2 hours and 20 minutes watching their story unfold but leaving me hanging at the end was not fun.
There were a lot of continuity issues especially when it comes to make-up/special effects make-up. In one scene she has bruises on her arm and the next she doesn't. There is a scene of her covering her bruises up with make-up, but makeup does not cover up those types of bruises that easily. You still will see some sort of skin discoloration where the bruises are. Plus, not only did she have bruises she had cuts and scrapes as well and makeup does not cover over fresh cuts and scrapes.
Yes, I know what you are thinking, Is there any positives to the movie? The costumes were well done. The locations really showed two sides of Russia. Each location had different textures. The cinematography was excellent. My favorite scene was when Joel's character is running from the Russians through the park. The street lights and the moon shining down on him was gorgeous. The editing was pretty well done. There were a couple of crossing the 180-degree rule. It didn't take away from the film and non-filmmakers wouldn't notice it. The editing kept the scene fresh and kept you knowing the geography of the room. SPOILER ALERT- If they might have cut thirty minutes it could have been more of a solid movie especially since the ending really didn't end.
SPOILER ALERT- Sitting there for 2 hours and 20 minutes watching their story unfold but leaving me hanging at the end was not fun.
There were a lot of continuity issues especially when it comes to make-up/special effects make-up. In one scene she has bruises on her arm and the next she doesn't. There is a scene of her covering her bruises up with make-up, but makeup does not cover up those types of bruises that easily. You still will see some sort of skin discoloration where the bruises are. Plus, not only did she have bruises she had cuts and scrapes as well and makeup does not cover over fresh cuts and scrapes.
Yes, I know what you are thinking, Is there any positives to the movie? The costumes were well done. The locations really showed two sides of Russia. Each location had different textures. The cinematography was excellent. My favorite scene was when Joel's character is running from the Russians through the park. The street lights and the moon shining down on him was gorgeous. The editing was pretty well done. There were a couple of crossing the 180-degree rule. It didn't take away from the film and non-filmmakers wouldn't notice it. The editing kept the scene fresh and kept you knowing the geography of the room. SPOILER ALERT- If they might have cut thirty minutes it could have been more of a solid movie especially since the ending really didn't end.
You may be wondering how many stars I would give it. You probably aren't, but I will tell you anyways. lol. I would give it 2 out of 5 stars. If I didn't have my Moviepass card I would have been very upset spending $10.00 on this movie. I would highly suggest seeing it when it comes to Netflix or the $1.00 rentals. Unless you want to see Jennifer Lawerance naked on the big screen then you will not want to wait till it hits DVD.
