Review: Imperium

I think many people including me will forever feel a bit strange seeing a film with Daniel Radcliffe that isn't Harry Potter. You will always see him as 'the boy who lived' and it will be tough to see him as anything else.

With that in mind, when you see the synopsis for this particular feature, it will intrigue to see if Radcliffe can pull this off.

At first glance, it is hard to not feel awkward watching something that does not look believable. But as the film goes on, you do see someone else. The tension is there throughout and the performances are helping this move along.

Sadly for me, its downfall is in the final act. While it finishes everything in a nice little bow, it still felt rushed and the ending felt abrupt. It is as if they did not know how to end it will and they just went with the conventional approach and I was surprised to see the end credits.

As mentioned before, Radcliffe ended up being pretty good. He gets more and more convincing as the film goes on and clearly is the drive to make this film memorable. Also, his American accent is not only good, it is consistent. It is great to see him continuing to do things that are the so far from the Harry Potter universe.
Toni Colette is solid overall. She has a strong opening, but never quite emulates that bright beginning. Everyone else played their roles well and all were both believable and sympathetic whether they were the good or bad guys.
I will mention the appearance of Burn Gorman as it is always good to see him. I have always liked him since his performance in Torchwood TV series.

Apart from the final act which I have already mentioned. The only other negative I wanted to mention was that it does get slow at times. It was not a total drawback as it is at least filled with story development that meant something.

While its formulaic structure won't make this exceptional and stand-out from the rest. It is still gripping and exciting and you will feel your heart pounding quite heavily once the abrupt credits roll.
You can probably work out how it ends. But I still felt constantly tense throughout. The execution of it works and makes you nervous for our main protagonist.

I must finally mention that for those people who think this movie is racist, re-think what you say in the future. There is a clear difference between things that are racist and things that are about racists.

Rating: 7/10