Se7en Crucial Review (Spoilers)

                       Se7en Crucial Review

                                                                               A James Ferris Review

Se7en is probably one of, if not the darkest movie ever made. And as much as I dislike this movie, I will admit that they do an excellent job to intentionally make it as bleak an experience as possible. (Sometimes unintentionally.)  The crimes are some of the most gruesome in cinematic history, the characters all seem to be lost in their brooding, and there never seems to be a light on... ever, and even when there is, it does a terrible job at lighting the room. (Seriously, how hard is it to just flick a light-switch in this movie?) They call Se7en a buddy-cop movie, but to me its way too much cop and little-to-no buddy. 

I have lots of things to say about this movie so I will start with the few positive things I took away from it.

First of all, There are two scenes I thought were truly well done, and one I actually enjoyed. The only enjoyable one was the hotel chase scene. It was a high paced, exciting scene with plenty of entertaining action. But even then it sparks no more conversation than that. The other one I thought was very well done but not necessarily enjoyed was the ending. It was really well written and suspenseful, and it regained my interest after having lost it for the entire second and third act. 

And secondly, Brad Pitt's And Morgan Freeman's acting performances were absolutely incredible. I truly could have thought that they were actually cops trying to catch this criminal. The frustration they show during the then-seeming rock bottoms of their case looks like real emotion.  They are both awesome actors and they really shined in these roles. However, their phenomenal acting can only do so much when given the worst and blandest characters to play I've ever seen. Seriously,  Se7en excuses brooding, depression, and swearing as a substitute for any signs of personality.  The writers seem to think that if the characters are dark and angry enough, we won't notice how shallowly they're written.  

Then the movie's atmosphere is also an issue.  I get that the director wanted to apply a dark element to the movie, but in the end it just made the camerawork look sloppy, inept, and uninteresting. 

There's also the ending, as well done as I think it is. I also think its big reveal of Gwyneth Paltrow having been killed missed the mark.  She gets like three scenes so I didn't really get to know her character enough to feel emotional about her death. 

In the end, a movie should either be two things. It should be a well done piece of art, or if not that it should be a popcorn movie that provides me with a good two hours of entertainment. Se7en has failed to give me either. It seems to me that the makers wanted to make me gag as much as possible, but unfortunately I found myself gagging more at how awful this movie is than any of its gruesome scenes.

Overall I give it 3.5 stars out of ten and advise anyone who hasn't seen this movie to please keep it that way.