I was really looking forward to a chess-themed movie, but I was disappointed. Beside not showing any real games (just very short glimpses of the board or random annotations), chess fans don't really get much out of it. The movie is also unnecessarily brutal and sadistic. If the brutality would at least serve any purpose it would be acceptable, but it does not.
The movie has many flaws in my opinion: First and foremost the decision to show the two storylines in prison and on the ship in parallel. It just does not work well and is more than often only confusing. I probably would have enjoyed the movie more if it would have been in the normal sequence.
Chess itself had not enough room to bloom. Sometimes the main character threw annotations around, but most of them were nonsense or too fast to follow. The movie also does not motivate the viewer to play himself.
The main character was just too crazy. He felt out-of-this-world all the time and I could not really make a connection with him. Most of the side characters also were moderately interesting at most. The chess world champion was even comically overdrawn and seemed like a Manga-version of a chess champion, his hair constantly hiding his face, his bulky stature, his stupid grunting. I was not expecting any realism here, but it was just too overdrawn and weird for me to find him interesting or believable.
I guess as a thriller the movie might work for some, but I for one was disappointed for the sloppy execution. I came for the chess, I stayed because I paid but in the end the movie was neither fun nor rewarding.
The movie has many flaws in my opinion: First and foremost the decision to show the two storylines in prison and on the ship in parallel. It just does not work well and is more than often only confusing. I probably would have enjoyed the movie more if it would have been in the normal sequence.
Chess itself had not enough room to bloom. Sometimes the main character threw annotations around, but most of them were nonsense or too fast to follow. The movie also does not motivate the viewer to play himself.
The main character was just too crazy. He felt out-of-this-world all the time and I could not really make a connection with him. Most of the side characters also were moderately interesting at most. The chess world champion was even comically overdrawn and seemed like a Manga-version of a chess champion, his hair constantly hiding his face, his bulky stature, his stupid grunting. I was not expecting any realism here, but it was just too overdrawn and weird for me to find him interesting or believable.
I guess as a thriller the movie might work for some, but I for one was disappointed for the sloppy execution. I came for the chess, I stayed because I paid but in the end the movie was neither fun nor rewarding.