The Lost City of Z (2017)

I don't usually take the time to write reviews but feel compelled with this film to do so. The costume design, filmography, and acting are all fantastic. I wanted so badly to find this film satisfying, but it truly falls short in the end. If you want to experience the disappointment of the characters themselves, without any true sense of fulfilled purpose, the writing accomplishes this marvelously. If you want to feel, at the end of a movie, like to was worth all the investment of your hopes and emotions that's were so expertly developed throughout this otherwise well-made film, skip it. I'm not sure how to better make a film about not fulfilling your passions, but this felt like slow death in the last act, with a lot of unclear messaging. Percy's half-developed lines in the end about "nothing will happen to us that is not our destiny" are not convincing nor consistent with the lifelong struggle of a man against all odds to pursue that which truly seems out of reach (and who we think will succeed against expectations). The story is set up to be a "triumph against the odds" tale, as currently written, and of course ends in failure and no satisfaction for the audience after rooting for our hero. It's like a movie in which Superman slowly dies of high cholesterol all the while talking about getting better. And then he actually dies...no sequel. The closest thing to a believable message by the end of the movie (as confusingly stated and unclear as it sounds) is: "Push hard against the odds and make every necessary sacrifice for that which you believe in, and in the end, no one will know if you ever succeeded...even you. Odds are, you probably won't succeed. But somehow it's worth it...maybe...but we don't really know." Except I'm pretty sure that's not what the writers were actually going for, so...flop. Spoiler alert: he doesn't find the lost city and maybe (?) dies at the hands of natives who actually exemplify the very stereotype of ignorance Percy fought so hard to dismantle throughout the movie...Either that or he decided to never again communicate with or return to the family he is portrayed to have so deeply loved and to instead stay in the jungle forever eluding search parties (not likely)...Except I'm pretty sure that's ALSO not what the writers were going for. Really disappointing writing and poor waste of otherwise phenomenal filmmaking. Sorry I spent the time.

The story, fascinating as it is based on a true life, is hard to pin down and get into it. No time did I feel trapped and feel exhausted by empathy while watching this film, although I am sure shooting this film would have been torturous. For that reason, they could've used real life events on film to incorporate the tension of going through a jungle would be like (especially the amount of gear you need). It really lacks in any emotional punch - nowt. It would have the actors at breaking points with filming in such conditions, then why not use this to the viewer's advantage? You need that sort of exploitation to tell this particular story.It was far too comfortable. How did they ever keep on travelling back? To and fro throughout the film, and nothing of these particular journeys except of some parts of getting "there" (many theres in this film).Too big of a life for such a small film. Fixate on one aspect of life I would suggest - just pick one of these events and pull out the emotional and physical effort needed to draw on. In the end, dull - I am sure not because of the effort of crew and actors. But it was dull.

For some reason at the moment I'm right into movies set in the jungle of exotic countries. I'm not sure the reason, perhaps I'm craving an exotic adventure for myself. Whatever it is though it's got me watching every one of them I can find. I had been meaning to get around to 'The Lost City of Z' but the runtime of two hours 20 minutes had me a little bit sceptical. The pacing of a film with that length needs to impeccable otherwise it can drag on and become a real chore. I finally got around to seeing it though and what I discovered wasn't a bad film, but it certainly wasn't as enjoyable as I'd hoped for.I'd hoped for a film much more like 'Jungle' starring Daniel Radcliffe where they enter the jungle, the action begins and then never lets up. Instead I found it a very frustrating and choppy film. Every time the action was just starting to begin they'd suddenly cut back to civilisation with them out of the jungle and the boring set up nonsense would start again. The film is undoubtedly at its strongest when it is set in the jungle.It sounds like there was a hell of a lot of adversity during the shoot. I commend the cast and crew for committing to actually film in the jungle. It sounds like it was bloody awful at times. There's some very strong dialogue throughout the movie that helps pave over a lot of the cracks. There are unquestionably better jungle set movies out there that I would recommend checking out before this one.

I was wondering when a full production on this subject matter would be done, overall pretty good watch. I think it was very very accurate to the real life story, a little bit of fantasy on the lost city would have been great, focused a little to much on the dram side of things, but that's a personal perspective.