POSITIVES:
1) The performances are all amazing. The leads are all veteran actors who put in their best performances in years and convey so much through subtle facial expressions and gestures, while the younger supporting cast all really bring their A game too 2) I thought the world building was terrific. It reminded me of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in terms of how you feel like you're actually living in this time period with these characters; I was truly absorbed by the film 3) As the title of this review suggests, this film is right in Scorsese's wheelhouse and he knows exactly what he's doing in this crime genre and with these themes of corrupting your soul and losing yourself to greed. Watching the film was like watching a master at work
NEGATIVES:
1) There is definitely no need for the film to be three and a half hours long. You could take an hour out of the film quite easily without really affecting the main story at all 2) The de-aging was a big talking point prior to the film's release and I don't think it's terrible, but I do think it's noticeably wobbly at times. I also felt there were times it was quite obvious that characters were standing in front of fake CGI backgrounds rather than being on real sets / in real locations 3) Scorsese loves using narration and it's just not something I'm a fan of in any film really. Also, the way it's used for De Niro to frequently rattle off the names of dozens of bit-part characters made it hard to keep track of who was who.
1) The performances are all amazing. The leads are all veteran actors who put in their best performances in years and convey so much through subtle facial expressions and gestures, while the younger supporting cast all really bring their A game too 2) I thought the world building was terrific. It reminded me of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood in terms of how you feel like you're actually living in this time period with these characters; I was truly absorbed by the film 3) As the title of this review suggests, this film is right in Scorsese's wheelhouse and he knows exactly what he's doing in this crime genre and with these themes of corrupting your soul and losing yourself to greed. Watching the film was like watching a master at work
NEGATIVES:
1) There is definitely no need for the film to be three and a half hours long. You could take an hour out of the film quite easily without really affecting the main story at all 2) The de-aging was a big talking point prior to the film's release and I don't think it's terrible, but I do think it's noticeably wobbly at times. I also felt there were times it was quite obvious that characters were standing in front of fake CGI backgrounds rather than being on real sets / in real locations 3) Scorsese loves using narration and it's just not something I'm a fan of in any film really. Also, the way it's used for De Niro to frequently rattle off the names of dozens of bit-part characters made it hard to keep track of who was who.