Point Break

This review may contain spoilers!

What this film offers is one of the more visually spectacular blockbusters that I've seen. I would give Point Break a 7/10.

I really liked the relationship created between the protagonist and antagonist of the film, the genuine chemistry despite their ultimate adversity was really well done. I also thought that the motivations behind the antagonists for this film was moderately unique; it was an interesting philosophy and another stance upon how the planet is being treated. I also thought this film threw in a couple of interesting plot twists, such as the death of Jeff or the unexpected death of Samsara. However at the end of the day this film is a visual masterpiece and it shows in quite a few elements of the film. The cinematography is probably the film's greatest element, it's due to this that the stunts are made to feel so real and suspenseful. The editing is exceptionally smooth, every cut is well timed with the pacing of the action. The score and soundtrack for this film are pretty perfect; the soundtrack especially creates a really modern vibe for the film that makes this blockbuster all it's own.

Edgar Ramirez, who played Bodhi, is the perfect antagonist for this film; he really made the motives behind the criminals in this film quite interesting through his impressive line delivery. Luke Bracey, who played Utah, is a great protagonist in this film; what really made Bracey so good was his chemistry with Ramirez that the film relied so heavily upon. Ray Winstone, who played Pappas, has some of the best one liners in the film; his gruff handler role is quite a fun side character.

However the best performance came from Delroy Lindo, who played Instructor Hall. From the minute Lindo is introduced he feels like one of the most realistic characters of the film. He fights against characters constantly, even those he supports to bring about the best scenes of the film. I liked his presence, he felt like a powerful role and I wish we had seen more of him than we did.

There were some serious structure problems with this film, specifically how the action would jump around too much suddenly or how scenes would come about through a wishy washy plot point. You really felt this after Samsara died then Utah caught up to Bodhi at a train station with no explanation as to how he tracked Bodhi down; another similar moment was when Hall tells Utah they can't get into Venezuela then next scene they've somehow entered Venezuela despite a lack of jurisdiction. The first half of this film is definitely the weakest and this lies mainly with the fact that the plot stops referencing the FBI element of Utah's character completely, you start to wonder if Utah's motives have changed only for the FBI aspect to forcibly make a return just over halfway through. There was an exceptionally weak romance subplot between Utah and Samsara that I really did not enjoy, everything about it felt so forced.

Teresa Palmer, who played Samsara, was such an awful character both in terms of performance and writing; she had no chemistry at all with Bracey which was a shame because that was the biggest aspect of her character. Matias Varela, who played Grommet, is a character I wish had been given more major scenes; I think Varela had a lot to offer this film but just wasn't given enough screen time. Clemens Schick, who played Roach, was an antagonistic role who didn't show enough conflict in this film; there really needed to be more adversity between Bracey and Schick but it ultimately wasn't there. Tobias Santelmann, who played Chowder, was a fairly forgettable performance; you didn't even care all that much about his death. Nikolai Kinski, who played Pascal Al Fariq, was a really weird role and performance; I don't think there was much reason to put a face to Bodhi and crew's money.