The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Review

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a 2015 spy film directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander. It is a film that is visually appealing, but weak in plot.

The story here is incredibly mediocre. It is filled with unbelievable and uninteresting plot points and turns. It is pretty uninteresting and almost never truly entertaining. It is on the level of a basic and even weaker Bond movie with a story that is so typical and never original or intriguing in any way.

The characters are a bit better, but still forgettable. Napoleon Solo is a bit annoying and typical, but Illya Kuryakin is much better and much more likable. The relationship between the two is probably the highlight of this whole movie. It is unfortunately not as much realized as I hoped it would be, but it is still pretty solid and drives this movie with great chemistry between the two leads. Gaby is also a pretty good character, but the rest are just boring and not a bit memorable.

The acting is also pretty good. Armie Hammer is solid, but is the weak link here, delivering a so-so performance that is pretty weak from time to time. Henry Cavill is definitely better, but both of these actors aren’t particularly charismatic and that fact does hurt a movie to a larger degree. Alicia Vikander, on the other hand, gave a much better performance than those two and is easily the film’s best asset.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is a visual marvel and that is easily its biggest strength. It has memorable imagery and is always beautiful to look at. It has excellent interior shots and has great locations wonderfully put to use. The cinematography is pretty good and the directing and acting are solid. It is weakly paced as it is dragged and boring at times and the running time is certainly overblown. The dialogue is definitely good, but could have been better.

As for its action, it is entertaining at times, but is structurally uneven as it happens rarely, but lasts for too long. The humor is so weak and better humor would have helped the movie a lot. As for its score, it is really good and although sometimes the sound mixing isn’t up to task, the soundtrack is always fun and wonderfully fitting with superb 1960s references. But overall the movie, although visually appealing, is weak in character development and storytelling. It is definitely one of the weaker spy flicks of this year which is unfortunate as it had a lot of potential.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. is visually great with superb imagery and great locations, the score is excellent and the leads are fine, but the story is weak, the acting is not that great and the characters aren’t that well developed. It is a weak spy film that was pretty disappointing to me.

My Rating – 3

******************************************************************************************

      Interior & Exterior Stills from The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

[wppa type=”slide” album=”40″ size=”1200″ align=”center”]Any comment[/wppa]