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After critical reviews trashed his sci-fi epic “Rebel Moon,” filmmaker Zack Snyder opted to return to his filmmaking roots with “The Last Photograph,” a $10 million drama shot in Colombia – no green screen, no slow motion, just a straight up dramatic thriller.
Unfortunately for Snyder, many of those who checked it out at the festival don’t appear to be fans – reviews and reactions have savaged the film’s story, performances and overall quality, with people labelling it inferior versions of “The Year of Living Dangerously,” “The Quiet American” and “Apocalypse Now”.
While the film hasn’t shown up on critical aggregator sites as yet, reactions and reviews are flooding in. Here’s a sampling:
“Although you can take the man out of DC, the DC is very much still inside this particular man, and the niggling problem with The Last Photograph is that it sometimes forgets about its characters in a bid to hit the furiously paced action set-pieces.” – Damon Wise, Deadline
“The film is his most intimate and grounded yet. He deserves to be commended for that, and for the genuinely beautiful imagery that he shot himself as cinematographer. But all of his worst traits are there in abundance, too. Overlong, ponderous and deadly serious to a comical degree, it’s a film that feels more like a test run than a finished product” – Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics
“The Last Photograph is a decisive disappointment from Zack Snyder, an overly long and painfully self-serious revenge thriller that repeatedly mistakes brutality, nudity, and grimness for depth. While the film eventually finds some momentum in its middle act, its promising journey through the streets and jungles of Colombia ultimately gives way to a disastrous third act filled with underwhelming reveals and squandered intrigue” – George Bate, The HoloFiles
“The Last Photograph is a miserable experience, vile at times, tedious at others, and a complete misfire. Credit to Snyder for making the exact film he wanted to make. I will always support auteurs getting to film their passion projects. At the same time, that does not guarantee quality, and this movie is abysmal. Truly rough stuff.” – Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
“THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH: Snyder’s version of The Quiet American represents a certain nadir for TIFF programming. But don’t worry — this lurid, turgid, and not a little bit racist tour upriver will likely never escape Toronto in its current form.” – Barry Hertz, Globe & Mail
“Slower-paced and stripped of much of the cinematic flair that has defined his career, it instead exposes Snyder’s shortcomings as a storyteller through misguided scripting choices, gratuitous violence and nudity, wooden dialogue, and hollow performances. By the end, I genuinely wanted this to be the last film I ever have to see from him.” – Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
“Zack Snyder tries so hard to make an art house movie with #TheLastPhotograph that the finished film feels like a parody. Gratuitous and sluggishly paced, it features a compelling premise that’s held back by Snyder’s worst tendencies as a filmmaker and shoddy performances.” – Evan Miller, FOX News
“It’s kinda apparent why a studio didn’t make THE LAST PHOTOGRAPH with Zack Snyder. There isn’t really a movie here. There are many interesting images, but it’s dramatically a non-starter. And lead Stuart Martin isn’t up to it. #TIFF26” – Ankit Jhunjhunwala, The Playlist
Stuart Martin and Fra Fee star in the film, which follows an ex-DEA operative who heads into the Andes to rescue his kidnapped niece and nephew, the kids of his murdered diplomat sibling.
Enlisting the help of a washed-up junkie war photographer, the only person to have seen the face of the kidnappers, he is determined to find the children and the truth – but soon learns he must also face the ghosts of his past.
Their journey into the unknown takes them farther and farther away from civilisation, bringing into question everything they believe, while slowly eroding the distinction between real and surreal.
The title hasn’t set a distributor or theatrical release yet.
The post Zack Snyder’s “Last Photograph” Reactions Are In appeared first on Dark Horizons.
