POLAR (2019)

If the violence in your movie is hyper-stylized, the character who's attacked should die immediately. Otherwise, it's a lose-lose situation. If the character expresses pain, it's less fun to watch, and if they don't express it, it comes off as unrealistic (unless it's done in a parodic way). That's what happens many times in POLAR, especially when DUNCAN VIZLA (a hitman who wants to retire) shoots a nail gun towards a man's balls and he doesn't scream.If that's the logic you want to follow, why not set this in a fantasy world? Even if the movie had followed the rules, it would still be an uneven one, because the dramatic scenes are too grim. Mads Mikkelsen and Katheryn Winnick's performances are good. Vanessa Hudgens' isn't bad, but... Well, she's the cast member who tries the hardest yet she's the least convincing one. Why bother hiring Deadmau5 to compose the music score if he was just going to sample a lot of his previous songs? Why not use those songs or remixed versions of them? That way, it would be a soundtrack instead. After DUNCAN has sex with a prostitute named EVALINA, there are 20 seconds of her walking around the room naked. This is gratuitous because she's not really doing anything and neither of them are saying a word. It wasn't grauitous when they were having sex because there was a purpose. I mean... at least focus on how DUNCAN is looking at her. That would count as a purpose since it would be showing things from his point of view. DUNCAN goes to a school and the kids ask him questions about the world. 1 kid asks "Do they speak American in England?" There's no comedic pause nor anything to indicate that the viewer is supposed to laugh at that. In fact, the same thing that happened with the other (normal) questions happens here: DUNCAN answers while he remembers killing people in each country. His answer is "They don't say much." Since that line is ironic, the viewer is now focused on it instead of the question. What I'm getting at is... why isn't anyone (on-screen or behind the camera) concerned about this kid's ignorance?! A lot of Frank Miller's projects were based on noir cinema, but the best ones didn't feel like rip-offs because they had some unique element. The graphic novel series that this movie is based on doesn't have any unique story/dialogue/character elements and, while NO MERCY FOR SISTER MARIA (the third issue) is creative with the use of colors, CAME FROM THE COLD and EYE FOR AN EYE (the first 2 issues) copy SIN CITY's visual style. There were many pages that I needed to stare for several seconds in order to understand what was going on (due to where certain vignettes and dialogue bubbles were placed, the vignettes' different sizes and the lack of details in the artwork (being visually basic on purpose is no excuse)), so I guess that I should call this a faithful adaptation, since the editing in many scenes makes things hard to follow. Also, the 1st issue's plot was too simplistic, while the 2nd and 3rd issue's plots were too convoluted. I give the movie credit for finding the middle the ground. It was never boring like the comics, but it was also never compelling nor thrilling.

3/10
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