Review of Mute

It made me sad how bad this movie turned out. There were too many variables that needed to work to make this an ok movie, but everything just fell slightly short of being solid, despite good performances by Rudd and Theroux.

The first 20 minutes could have been told in two minutes and I almost gave up, then it got minimally engaging and I half dozed through the rest.
It was interesting to see Berlin dressed up in Blade Runner, but then again not interesting enough to make up for story.

The idea of having the main character be a mute required every other actor to be able to carry scenes, which not many were, especially considering that the bar for acting in sci-fi movies is already low. The writing is not very tight, neither the editing, the vfx are generic and the camera meanders through many scenes that seem to want to capture a futuristic Berlin culture but have no purpose driving the plot forward.
That said it could have been a good movie, maybe similar to Strange Days, if they had approached it like a Fincher thriller instead of a dreamy juvenile romance/revenge story. Oh, and sci-fi, there was no need for sci-fi at all, even considering the last sci-fi-esque surgery and it's consequence - no need. The last half hour had some decent themes and acting, maybe they should have taken that and rewritten the rest. Anyway this review sucks about as much as the movie. Go watch it if you want to learn from its mistakes.