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The opening! That's it. I'm gonna talk about that right now. The opening is arguably one of the greatest intros to a film I've ever seen. It's so greatly choreographed and well detailed. The intro is like a trailer, a taste of things to yet to come and it works brilliantly. It's not like any of those James Bond movies where Mr. Bond magically appears from nowhere, says a cheesy quote and goes out with the same expression on his face. This one seemed real and more professional. Then one of the best scenes follows: The hallway scene where all of the major characters meet, not knowing they would be affected by one another in some sort of way. It was such a great moment and I liked the atmosphere.
The cinematography is great and it's very entertaining to watch whereas it's a little low on dialogues though. But I think the great performances and an addicting storyline kinda made it up for that, so no worries. Speaking of performances, I haven't still seen much material of Jean Reno (Leon) and Natalie Portman (Mathilda) and this is the first time I'm seeing the former as a lead and boy, was he impressive. He tackled the character in a distinctive way and no matter how much it gets remade, the character will always be Jean Reno and no-one else. Then the latter as Mathilda, a sort of like a pre-Hit-Girl and a superb performance at that. I've just seen 2-3 of her films but this one stands out as her best, performance-wise. I liked all her scenes which involved crying because she is one of the handful of actors who can cry realistically and with emotion. Then of course we have Gary Oldman as the antagonist, Norman Stansfield in one of his more better performances. Now him I've seen many times and seeing another classic performance from him was imminent. He has the ability to become his character so much that you cannot recognize him in the first try. It's almost a given that any character named Norman is a villain and this one stands as one of the greatest psychopaths ever to grace the silver screen with his sporadic appearances. It reminded me of a mix between The Joker and Taha from B13. A performance well deserved for a nomination. Frankly speaking, I think all 3 main leads should've been nominated as this certainly was one of their high points.
All in all, like I said, the cinematography is great and there are indeed funny moments which will put a smile on your face and shocking moments which I bet you didn't see it coming. It's a fun movie that actually has a great romance sub-story better than most and some truly great moments.
+ One more thing: I downloaded the Director's Cut edition and, by referencing Wikipedia, saw that all scenes appeared as mentioned in the list but still some members say something about a pedophile love scene between Leon & Mathilda. It never showed up... can you tell me what this scene is all about??
8.7/10
