This movie had such potential, but failed to fulfill any of it.
It's a real shame because the costumes, sets and locations were all fantastic. It was shot nicely. The soundtrack was okay, but could've been better I guess. The acting was great. I think given better material Zac Efron could've done great things with this role. He certainly looked the part and he did well with what he had; the problem is he didn't have a whole lot to work with.
I think the main issue is it lacked a clear focus. Whose story was it? It wasn't Liz's, it wasn't Bundy's, it wasn't Carol Anne's, it wasn't even any of the victim's stories. It just waffled on showing a few of the moments/facts we already knew.
If you're going to give a movie a ridiculously long title like "Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, and Vile" then you kind of need to show some wicked, evil, and vile acts at some point in the movie. Okay, so I get that it's not considered acceptable to glorify the crimes of serial killers. I agree with this, but you certainly shouldn't try to make the audience sympathise with them while barely mentioning their numerous victims and the families of those victims. That list of names slapped on the end just before the credits made me cringe. Was that all the recognition these innocent victims deserved?
For me, the disappointment comes down to the fact that this movie was about one of the most prolific killers of all time and his crimes weren't depicted at all, nor were the stories of his victims. If you watched this movie, not knowing anything about Bundy, you certainly wouldn't leave it thinking about just how terrible his "extremely wicked, shockingly evil, and vile" acts were. You wouldn't feel the immense loss he caused. I'm really not sure what you'd take away from it. Maybe you just be confused as I was.
Very poorly executed which I guess comes down to a poor screenplay.
