Ensign Lestat's (Spoiler-filled) Film Log, 15/05/2013
So, I finally got around to watching 'Welcome to the Punch'. I dithered for over a week as to whether to watch the film or not. I wanted to be in a happy mood. I wanted something fun. Welcome to the Punch looked anything but.
The sole trailer I had seen promised a dark premise. There's certainly a noir-esque look to the film. And hence, I just kept on dithering.
But, the other evening I finally gave in to the temptation. Heck, how bad could it be? And, what exactly was it that I was afraid of? Boredom? Violence? Lack of James McAvoy looking hot? Lack of hotness in totality?
The film starts with an overlong title card. It seriously takes forever for the long film title to come up in totality. Snorefest? Too soon to decide.
We are then thrust midway through a chase. We're following young copper Max (McAvoy), as he attempts to take down thieving baddie Sternwood (Mark Strong). When Max finally catches up with Sternwood, things end badly for him.
Fast-forward three years and Sternwood is doing one million push-ups in the middle of, get this, Iceland! There's a beautifully gratuitous scene of him standing in front of the Northern Lights. Yup, we wanna be there. We also wanna be able to do a hundred push-ups without breaking a sweat or going into cardiac arrest.
Consequently, dear Max is asleep in his bed, in a dingy apartment. He lives out of a box - aptly titled 'Max's stuff', suggesting he's been kicked out of his house (I'm guessing by his wife, but if you see Max, you'd think it was his parents). He sits up and sticks a giant needle into his leg to extract coagulating fluid in the area where he got shot by Sternwood.
Our two protagonists are living in two completely different worlds, and that, I believe, is what's left a deep impression on me. WTTP (yup, it has an abbreviation) is not mind-bogglingly intelligent, or fabulously thought-provoking. What it is, at least for me, is a very different take on the usual crime capers.
So, this spoiler-filled log entry is more a study than a review. I am not claiming to be an expert on films, especially not the classics. I know zip. My interests are usually skin-deep - see trailer/ see a looker = watch film.
Let me point out right now that the cinematography was breath-taking. Eerily dark, dingy and scary, as well as glamorous and loving of London. The action sequences were crisp combining old-fashioned film-making with new age technology. Stylised, is how I can describe this film. The sheer beauty of this film is exactly how beautiful it looks.
Of course, if you stick around to check out the end credits, you will see where the idea, concept and execution stems from. Hong Kong action films and cops and robbers films of old. Yes, that has been pointed out in the credits. So, thank you, classics.
But, back to the real thing.
We have the good guy, Max, shot in the leg, curtailing a promising career. What could and should have been his big break, ends up destroying him. Okay, that might be an exaggeration. But self-destruction is often the worst kind of destruction around. He is broken because not only did he disobey orders, but his cocky, foolhardiness ended up in permanently injuring him.
None of this, by the way, is mentioned in the film. His lack of confidence, fire and ambition comes through in his exchanges, or rather lack of exchanges with his colleagues when we fast forward.
His constant refrain, to his fiery partner Sarah (Andrea Riseborough), is that he doesn't want to get involved. It's not his problem, not his concern. I might as well point out that McAvoy plays Max delightfully. Though we never get to know the younger Max very well, the new Max is convincingly portrayed.
So, what's the plot of the film? Let's first start with the major plot. Essentially, this twist-riddled film is about securing the safety of police officers in England, because, as often pointed out in newspapers and in this film, while officers of the law are armed with batons and sometimes with tasers, the gangs and criminals on the streets have knives and guns. How are they to do their jobs?
The film's villains want to put guns in the law's hands and take down the criminals. A noble sentiment. I've been in England, and that place can get scary at night. While I certainly don't condone the idea of guns begetting guns, I also don't like that fact that in a fight between bads and goods, the cards are stacked against the goods.
The plan is eventually foiled, but I could understand the sentiment. This is the theme that runs through the film. There's no black and white. Only grey.
The more personal storyline is when Max runs up against Sternwood again. Sternwood's son, Ruan ends up getting shot at. He calls his father before collapsing. The cops decide to take advantage of this situation. They use Ruan as bait. The trouble is, Sternwood is awfully clever. He can read cops and their tactics well.
He foils their original plot to capture him, leading to deaths and injuries to many of the police officers. Their second attempt, this time instigated by Max on the behest of Sarah, is also foiled.
Then, the plot thickens. Ruan dies, and Max urges his team to hide this fact. With Ruan dead, Sternwood would just go after the killers, he wouldn't attempt to get to his son. It's an ingenious plan. Or so we think.
Max's decision didn't bother me, till, after having been saved by Sternwood (yeah, a twist that you're likely to balk at, till you realise that this is to Sternwood's advantage), he leads him to meet his son. It's a tension-filled scene, before we realise that Sternwood has been led to the morgue. Max has this bizarrely happy smirk on his face, which just gets wider and wider as Sternwood realises the extent of the police's deception. The smirk only falls when Sternwood is completely overcome with grief and barks at Max to leave.
It was a most impressive scene, this. I truly despised Max at that moment, while actually feeling immensely sorry for Sternwood. Brilliant!
This then leads to Max finding out that Sarah is dead. We now have a repetition of Sternwood's emotional display, this time on Max, and it's a hard way for a character to get his comeuppance. Max deserved better.
As I've mentioned several times, the film doesn't paint the characters as black and white. There is this brilliant scene in the beginning, when Sternwood re-enters the picture. A fellow officer is reviewing Sternwood's file and comments that, despite it all, Sternwood is quite a legend.
An absolutely broken Max replies, almost in an aside, that a man who steals and hurts people gets called a legend, while he, Max, an upstanding cop, remains a nobody. That scene must be watched to be felt. I could not, at that moment, have agreed with him more. Cults and gangs form around vile human beings, while the honest do-gooders end up as footnotes, or less, in history textbooks.
My biggest grouse with the film was the handling of Sarah. She gets summarily offed three-quarters of the way through. Worst of all, when she's confronted by the killer, she just doesn't fight her way out of it. She struggles and gives up. But, she's a cop. The average citizen will put their faith in her, but all she does is look scared and then she dies. I was deeply disappointed. She should have been allowed to pull some more weight.
What really got me thinking was the ending. Now, I had a feeling it would end the way it did, but I'm still in two minds about whether I liked it or not.
Here's what happens. Max and Sternwood team-up to take down Max's boss, who's been behind all this gun-running and murdering in the first place. They make for an exceptional team, by the way. Once the chief has been shot, Max and Sternwood face each other, as sirens approach. So, what should they do next? Max could shoot. He certainly thinks about it. And then... he puts his gun down and lets Sternwood run. So, Sternwood runs to freedom, while the cops surround Max and arrest him.
I just don't know how I feel about this. In a way, it shows that Max has outgrown his vengeful ways. He sees the bigger picture. And, because he didn't shoot the chief (Sternwood did), he can pin it on him while revealing exactly how corrupt the entire police division was.
Having said that, Sternwood is still a criminal. He should be brought to justice. He roams free. Max gets locked up. What is with this film? Why do they hate Max so much?
So, I finally got around to watching 'Welcome to the Punch'. I dithered for over a week as to whether to watch the film or not. I wanted to be in a happy mood. I wanted something fun. Welcome to the Punch looked anything but.
The sole trailer I had seen promised a dark premise. There's certainly a noir-esque look to the film. And hence, I just kept on dithering.
The film starts with an overlong title card. It seriously takes forever for the long film title to come up in totality. Snorefest? Too soon to decide.
We are then thrust midway through a chase. We're following young copper Max (McAvoy), as he attempts to take down thieving baddie Sternwood (Mark Strong). When Max finally catches up with Sternwood, things end badly for him.
 |
| This is the first scene ending badly for Max |
Consequently, dear Max is asleep in his bed, in a dingy apartment. He lives out of a box - aptly titled 'Max's stuff', suggesting he's been kicked out of his house (I'm guessing by his wife, but if you see Max, you'd think it was his parents). He sits up and sticks a giant needle into his leg to extract coagulating fluid in the area where he got shot by Sternwood.
Our two protagonists are living in two completely different worlds, and that, I believe, is what's left a deep impression on me. WTTP (yup, it has an abbreviation) is not mind-bogglingly intelligent, or fabulously thought-provoking. What it is, at least for me, is a very different take on the usual crime capers.
So, this spoiler-filled log entry is more a study than a review. I am not claiming to be an expert on films, especially not the classics. I know zip. My interests are usually skin-deep - see trailer/ see a looker = watch film.
Let me point out right now that the cinematography was breath-taking. Eerily dark, dingy and scary, as well as glamorous and loving of London. The action sequences were crisp combining old-fashioned film-making with new age technology. Stylised, is how I can describe this film. The sheer beauty of this film is exactly how beautiful it looks.
 |
| The cinematography is breath-taking. Yes, this caption fits perfectly with the image! |
But, back to the real thing.
We have the good guy, Max, shot in the leg, curtailing a promising career. What could and should have been his big break, ends up destroying him. Okay, that might be an exaggeration. But self-destruction is often the worst kind of destruction around. He is broken because not only did he disobey orders, but his cocky, foolhardiness ended up in permanently injuring him.
 |
| Max contemplates his life |
His constant refrain, to his fiery partner Sarah (Andrea Riseborough), is that he doesn't want to get involved. It's not his problem, not his concern. I might as well point out that McAvoy plays Max delightfully. Though we never get to know the younger Max very well, the new Max is convincingly portrayed.
So, what's the plot of the film? Let's first start with the major plot. Essentially, this twist-riddled film is about securing the safety of police officers in England, because, as often pointed out in newspapers and in this film, while officers of the law are armed with batons and sometimes with tasers, the gangs and criminals on the streets have knives and guns. How are they to do their jobs?
The film's villains want to put guns in the law's hands and take down the criminals. A noble sentiment. I've been in England, and that place can get scary at night. While I certainly don't condone the idea of guns begetting guns, I also don't like that fact that in a fight between bads and goods, the cards are stacked against the goods.
The plan is eventually foiled, but I could understand the sentiment. This is the theme that runs through the film. There's no black and white. Only grey.
The more personal storyline is when Max runs up against Sternwood again. Sternwood's son, Ruan ends up getting shot at. He calls his father before collapsing. The cops decide to take advantage of this situation. They use Ruan as bait. The trouble is, Sternwood is awfully clever. He can read cops and their tactics well.
He foils their original plot to capture him, leading to deaths and injuries to many of the police officers. Their second attempt, this time instigated by Max on the behest of Sarah, is also foiled.
 |
| Sarah and Max. She's the fiery one of the two. Could you have guessed? |
Max's decision didn't bother me, till, after having been saved by Sternwood (yeah, a twist that you're likely to balk at, till you realise that this is to Sternwood's advantage), he leads him to meet his son. It's a tension-filled scene, before we realise that Sternwood has been led to the morgue. Max has this bizarrely happy smirk on his face, which just gets wider and wider as Sternwood realises the extent of the police's deception. The smirk only falls when Sternwood is completely overcome with grief and barks at Max to leave.
It was a most impressive scene, this. I truly despised Max at that moment, while actually feeling immensely sorry for Sternwood. Brilliant!
 |
| Who're you rooting for now? |
As I've mentioned several times, the film doesn't paint the characters as black and white. There is this brilliant scene in the beginning, when Sternwood re-enters the picture. A fellow officer is reviewing Sternwood's file and comments that, despite it all, Sternwood is quite a legend.
An absolutely broken Max replies, almost in an aside, that a man who steals and hurts people gets called a legend, while he, Max, an upstanding cop, remains a nobody. That scene must be watched to be felt. I could not, at that moment, have agreed with him more. Cults and gangs form around vile human beings, while the honest do-gooders end up as footnotes, or less, in history textbooks.
 |
| Max's reaction, "You really shouldn't have said that." Yeah, I wish. |
What really got me thinking was the ending. Now, I had a feeling it would end the way it did, but I'm still in two minds about whether I liked it or not.
 |
| Do it, son. Do it now... Too bloody late! |
I just don't know how I feel about this. In a way, it shows that Max has outgrown his vengeful ways. He sees the bigger picture. And, because he didn't shoot the chief (Sternwood did), he can pin it on him while revealing exactly how corrupt the entire police division was.
Having said that, Sternwood is still a criminal. He should be brought to justice. He roams free. Max gets locked up. What is with this film? Why do they hate Max so much?
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