It's hard to know what to expect with any directors next project after it being their most successful from an awards perspective. For this particular situation, I think it will be a tough one as BlackKklansman was such an important film for so many.
For this one, while this still covers a serious topic, the tone seems to be mix between drama and adventure. It actually felt like a bit extreme in its shifts. Almost as if two different films were fighting to be the primary genre.
The drama side of the story is really interesting. The accompanying Vietnamese landscape is terrific and becomes a character in itself. As for the adventure side, it started well. But it somewhat lost my engagement the longer it went on. What I did like about that side of the story was the similarities to Treasure Of The Sierra Madre and its themes of greed.
There were some nice little historical elements presented on screen at certain times to make us aware of certain unsung heroes or little known bits of history. I was a bit sniffy with the way they were presented as it felt a bit preachy. But I did warm to it eventually.
With the Vietnam War being an integral aspect of the plot, I liked how they transitioned from past to present and how it helped with the story.
For the performances, while I don't think there were particular standouts. But as an ensemble, it was pretty strong. They all bounced off each other well and gave us a group of characters with an authentic sense of brotherhood and you can feel their respective haunted pasts.
So props to Delroy Lindo, Jonathan Majors, Clarke Peters, Norm Lewis, Isiah Whitlock Jnr as well as Melanie Thierry, Paul Wlater Hauser, Jasper Paakkonen, Johnny Nguyen, Sandy Huong Pham, Van Veronica Ngo and Chadwick Boseman.
The strongest aspect of the film for me was the score by Terence Blanchard, who is Spike Lee's regular composer. It's traditional grand orchestra quality it gave off really worked in certain scenes. That army and mystery vibe it gave off worked really well. I will certainly be listening to it again.
To conclude, while I feel there were a lot of positives, it never beyond the level of good. Almost everything felt pretty entertaining. But it felt short of giving it a strong re-watchability.
Spike Lee's style never always works with me. But I'm always intrigued by a new project and appreciate his films. This for me worked well for the most part. While it did not feel as impactful as some of his best, there's still plenty to enjoy.
As mentioned before, it looks great, the performances are all solid and the general story is intriguing even though the tonal shifts didn't work for me all the time.
With all the recent events occuring, the timing of its release is scarily on point. So this is certainly a film to be seen in 2020.
Rating: 7/10
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