Note: Spoilers start in the 5 paragraph
Don't get me wrong, this definitely isn't a bad film, but by the end instead of feeling satisfied I was left with a feeling of, "Wait, that's it?"
This should come as no suprise, but the acting is great. The cast plays off each other well and even when the the film gets slower, the performances kept me watching.
Along with the acting, the visuals are stunning. There are some beautiful shots in this movie as well as disturbing, but it all blends together nicely and fits with the feel of the movie.
The soundtrack was also decent, though not as good as it coudl've been. There were a few scenes where they don't play any music when it would've helped the scene, but overall I never felt like the score hurt the movie in any way. Though at the same time, I'm not sure how much it helped it either.
Now onto my main issues with the movie...
The characters are a mixed bag of quality. While some are dense and investing, others are deliberately not built on much. At first it doesn't make sense but then the characters start dying and guess which ones die first? The characters who weren't given much story.
It's a lazy way of filmmaking in my opinion, to not give depth to your main characters because they're going to die first. Like the first of "Da 5 Bloods" to die (the one that dies from the landmine) was in the movie so little that I hardly remembered he was a character until his death scene. And then the guy who was having sex with the french girl, he gets blown up too and he probably only has 7 or 8 lines in the whole movie. These characters, main characters, are so weak that I don't even remember their names!
On the topic of deaths, none of them were done well. When the first of the Bloods gets blown up, it's sad and starts to get emotional but they ruin the scene by hardly acting like it happened. Like the guy dies and then literally 5 seconds after, we move on to a tense scene where another character steps on a landmine. He was one of the main 5 characters and they don't give you any time to feel emotion.
Then there's another one of the Bloods who jumps on a grenade for no reason and the rest of the characters don't even acknowledge he's dead! Hell, they hardly tell the audience that he died because once again, as soon as he dies the movie jumps into another scene and doesnt give you any time to process the death. And why'd he jump on the grenade anyways? Nobody was close enough to be hit by it, not even him. He jumps over to it. Again, its lazy filmmaking and killing characters for no reason.
They also kill characters off just for the sake of it. I never felt like any of the main character's deaths had any impact on the movie because of the way the movie treats the deaths and the characters. It's a slap in the face to the audience who has to sit through 2 AND A HALF HOURS for there to be no respect given to the characters and their stories.
The ending was anticlimactic as well. You'd think after making a movie so long they'd give a proper ending but nah, they kill the bad guy, we see Jonathon Majors read a note over a montage, and it ends. No satisfaction or impactful moment, it just ends right after the final fight, which was lackluster as well.
Da 5 Bloods isn't a terrible movie. I admittedly enjoyed it a little, but it is frustrating more often than it is enjoyable. The characters aren't well balanced and the deaths are mostly pointless. The runtime isn't justified, though the acting and visuals are solid and the story is entertaining enough... mostly.
Don't get me wrong, this definitely isn't a bad film, but by the end instead of feeling satisfied I was left with a feeling of, "Wait, that's it?"
This should come as no suprise, but the acting is great. The cast plays off each other well and even when the the film gets slower, the performances kept me watching.
Along with the acting, the visuals are stunning. There are some beautiful shots in this movie as well as disturbing, but it all blends together nicely and fits with the feel of the movie.
The soundtrack was also decent, though not as good as it coudl've been. There were a few scenes where they don't play any music when it would've helped the scene, but overall I never felt like the score hurt the movie in any way. Though at the same time, I'm not sure how much it helped it either.
Now onto my main issues with the movie...
The characters are a mixed bag of quality. While some are dense and investing, others are deliberately not built on much. At first it doesn't make sense but then the characters start dying and guess which ones die first? The characters who weren't given much story.
It's a lazy way of filmmaking in my opinion, to not give depth to your main characters because they're going to die first. Like the first of "Da 5 Bloods" to die (the one that dies from the landmine) was in the movie so little that I hardly remembered he was a character until his death scene. And then the guy who was having sex with the french girl, he gets blown up too and he probably only has 7 or 8 lines in the whole movie. These characters, main characters, are so weak that I don't even remember their names!
On the topic of deaths, none of them were done well. When the first of the Bloods gets blown up, it's sad and starts to get emotional but they ruin the scene by hardly acting like it happened. Like the guy dies and then literally 5 seconds after, we move on to a tense scene where another character steps on a landmine. He was one of the main 5 characters and they don't give you any time to feel emotion.
Then there's another one of the Bloods who jumps on a grenade for no reason and the rest of the characters don't even acknowledge he's dead! Hell, they hardly tell the audience that he died because once again, as soon as he dies the movie jumps into another scene and doesnt give you any time to process the death. And why'd he jump on the grenade anyways? Nobody was close enough to be hit by it, not even him. He jumps over to it. Again, its lazy filmmaking and killing characters for no reason.
They also kill characters off just for the sake of it. I never felt like any of the main character's deaths had any impact on the movie because of the way the movie treats the deaths and the characters. It's a slap in the face to the audience who has to sit through 2 AND A HALF HOURS for there to be no respect given to the characters and their stories.
The ending was anticlimactic as well. You'd think after making a movie so long they'd give a proper ending but nah, they kill the bad guy, we see Jonathon Majors read a note over a montage, and it ends. No satisfaction or impactful moment, it just ends right after the final fight, which was lackluster as well.
Da 5 Bloods isn't a terrible movie. I admittedly enjoyed it a little, but it is frustrating more often than it is enjoyable. The characters aren't well balanced and the deaths are mostly pointless. The runtime isn't justified, though the acting and visuals are solid and the story is entertaining enough... mostly.