Sunday, 4 March 2018

Film Review: Red Sparrow (2018)

Rating: 6.5/10
Genre: Spy/Thriller
Related Titles: Atomic Blonde, Alias, Salt
By Leanne Harragan

When ballerina Dominika Egorova suffers a career ending injury, her future is thrown into uncertainty. Her only option is to turn to Sparrow School; a secret intelligence school training youngsters to use their bodies and brains as weapons. After finishing the gruelling programme as one of the most dangerous graduates, she must learn to come to terms with her new life.

This looked to be a good one, a female led spy film with an exciting trailer. I sadly feel that the trailer doesn't really match up to expectations. While it is a spy film through and through full of fighting, back stabbing and violence; it is much gorier that the trailer lets on and is incredibly sexually violent which I didn't expect at all. It also took a long time to really get into the plot of the film and then left itself only a few minutes to see out the ending meaning it was way too rushed.

Being a female-led film I was hoping for a feeling of empowerment and while I can see that this is what they were gong for as Dominika was a bad-ass, I can't help feel that it is a little off. There is a scene where a man is being 'humiliated' but during this scene Jennifer Lawrence is entirely naked in a really sexual way whilst the man is completely covered. This is not the only example of the film using the female characters in a less than empowering way. 

I like that the whole point of Dominika making these choices and living such a difficult life was to take care of her mother and be able to give her the care she needs. I think this was the only relatable part of the film as people do everything in there power to help their families when in trouble. 

Although I didn't love this film it isn't a complete write off, it's interesting and as it's a spy film there are a number of plot twists and it is hard to guess exactly what is going to happen next. If you are planning on watching this I would just say be prepared for the gore and violence. 


Rating: 7/10
By Rebecca Mannick

For a big Hollywood blockbuster starring arguable the 'biggest' actress right now Red Sparrow had a very short promotional campaign before the release of the movie. I try and keep up to date with upcoming releases however this one only came onto my radar about two weeks before scheduled to go into cinemas. Nevertheless I was really excited to see this one, and to be honest I love Jennifer Laurence so naturally I was intrigued with this picture. 

It takes you through Dominika's journey into becoming a sparrow. She is chosen as her Uncle is part of the Russian intelligence and after one mission she agrees to do to save her sick mother goes wrong she is faced with being killed or becoming a sparrow. The sparrow training camp is intense and focuses on being able to seduce their targets sexually. Some of the scenes are quite distressing, and there are a few scenes of rape which obviously was extremely uncomfortable to watch. On the whole Red Sparrow is really graphic as well. There’s one particular scene where they are just trying to knife each other to death, the amount of blood would make anyone feel a bit queasy. 

I did enjoy Red Sparrow however I have one major issue with it. The story was set for the 'reveal' at the end. It was building up for just over two hours for this final moment and it was all over in about 10 minutes. The ending was completely rushed and left me slightly confused to be really honest. It took away from how good the twist was, as it was very very clever and I didn't see it coming. But it felt so rushed I didn't have time to process what had happened. Also I do want to mention that I would have loved more Russian dialect and more subtitled. There’s only so much butchered Russian accents I can take before its just too painful to listen to. 





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