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Review:

Submergence (2017)

Score: 5/10

Director: Wim Wenders

Stars: Alicia Vikander, James McAvoy, Alexander Siddig.

Synopsis: An MI-6 agent is captured while on a mission in Somalia. His goal is to stay alive, manipulate his captures, and eliminate his target by any means necessary.

Review: An MI-6 agent named James More ( James McAvoy ) is on a mission to eliminate a nefarious target who is the leader of a splinter faction responsible for attacks in London. While on his mission under the guise of a hydraulic engineer, he is captured by his target and kept in a room with no windows on the eastern coast of Africa. While he is interrogated by his captures, James meets a doctor named Dr. Shadid (Alexander Siddig ) who informs him of the governmental situation and the plans of the malicious leader. No matter the cost James will do everything he can to complete his mission.

Alicia Vikander gives a solid performance but I have seen her do better. This script does not give her enough to work with like the films The Danish Girl (2015) or The Light Between Oceans (2016) do. If you’re just looking for films with Alicia Vikander in it then you’re in the right place. This film shows us a more subdued character that is passive yet assertive. Luckily Alicia Vikander gets plenty of screen time.

The performance given by James McAvoy alone makes this movie worth watching. When he is suffering its very real. This guy is one of the best actors plain and simple. Once again, he truly becomes the character he is playing.

If you’re a fan of Star Trek DS9, then you know who Dr. Julian Bashir is. Once again Alexander Siddig plays another doctor. He is also a Game of Thrones actor with a watered down HBO version of George R.R. Martin’s story line. This guy is really good and when he speaks about religion and morality, you tend to understand the film a little better seeing both sides of the spectrum. This film has problems with the way it’s written but the all star cast saves the film.

The film focuses on the concept of survival. For both of the main characters survival is an essential part of their story and character development. The interesting thing about them is that they chose to put themselves in the dangerous predicaments they are in. Both characters do this because they feel that they will cause a major positive change in the world by doing what they believe is right. The film also focuses on the dichotomy of the two polarities, male and female, light and dark. While each character is on their journey, the physical lighting of the character’s environment plays a part on the yin and yang like ideology the film plays off of. Alicia Vikander’s character goes into a submarine and drives into the deep darkness of the unknown. The lighting is very dark as she reads her poem about darkness. James McAvoys’ character is mostly kept in the light as he prays for protection and recites the words of Alicia Vikander’s character. Her world is below the surface, deep in the ocean, and full of darkness while his world is on the surface, near the beach, and full of sunlight.

The cinematography is excellent. This film mainly takes place in the desert area of Africa so there is not a lot to make the camera shots more interesting. The lighting is perfect. The backgrounds look very accurate to the areas of Africa the film depicts. The wardrobe, color, and lighting are perfect. This is by no mean a perfect film at all but the production is absolutely high quality and extremely impressive.

The “spy” activity in this film is hilariously foolish. These guys go to an art museum and start whispering in full public about their super secret MI-6 spy plans. No wonder this fool got caught. They could have at the very least had their conversation in a safe house that was just swept for “bugs”. A real MI-6 operative would probably be laughing his or her socks off at this ridiculous attempt at real spy trade craft. Even the film Body of Lies (2008) and The Recruit (2003) did that same stupid exposition with the characters speaking spy craft in full view of the public. I know that this is done for the audience’s benefit but Hollywood could do this with a little more finesse. The creators of this film could have written something better, but didn’t.

The film has a very big problem with resolving its side stories. The story will build up your interest but will essentially go nowhere. It’s a bit frustrating to get yourself so invested in this movie to have certain characters disappear all together. To not know what happened to a character and to not have major story lines pay off in the final act is beyond stupid writing. I do wonder why the studio would approve this. Again, this film is worth watching if you’re a fan of this cast Alicia Vikander, James McAvoy, and Alexander Siddig. Their talent and acting range turns this tin can of a story into gold, at least for me. Watch this below average film if you’re a fan of these celebrities. If you’re not into this cast then skip this film and go watch The Recruit (2003) instead.

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