Shutter Island - Sunken Island  
| What the fuck!? That was my initial reaction after watching Shutter Island. The trailer was fantastic - moody, thrilling and very intriguing. However, having now seen the movie, the trailer basically gives the entire film away. I went into the movie thinking exactly what the twist was which made the film predictable and boring (and I haven't read the novel). The film was originally pushed back due to "financial reasons" (not enough money to market it properly), I now believe they pushed it back because they thought it sucked. Just my opinion...
The film is set in 1954 and US Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is tasked with investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a prison/hospital for the criminally insane. The story sounds very absorbing, but what Martin Scorsese has done with it is made it boring (I suppose he is not entirely not to blame, the script suffers too). The film is being marketed as a psychological thriller (and the trailer certainly shows that) but the film doesn't create a good sense of suspense. It is often built up but then fizzles by doing nothing with it. Ooh... a light flickering, very scary. This kind of build up occurs far too often.
The film also tries to create a sense of eeriness with the imagery and the score (which isn't original; the score was borrowed from a number of places). I say "tries" because it was way overdone. They tried too hard. Everything was amplified, from the rainy days to the score. The score, much like in The Wolfman was loud and intrusive which became very annoying by the end. A lot of the scenes looked fake; particuallry in the beginning when they were on the boat, when they were standing on the cliffs and when Leo was driving with the Warden... it all looked like green screen. It should blend easily, not be obvious.
I have heard people calling Shutter Island a B movie. I couldn't agree more. However, an A-director should not be directing B movies, especially those with of such low caliber like this one. There is one scene in particular that is really bugging me and shows that Martin Scorsese was slipping a bit. I am referring of course to the scene where Leo's army brigade shoots all the Nazi's at the concentration camp. The film is so poorly executed that the emotional resonance didn't have the impact it should have. The dying Nazi's were too obviously "acting" that it annoyed the hell out of me. Martin should have done more with that scene.
I also hated the camera work in Shutter Island. The way the camera swooshes from one person to another with no sense of ease, or the close ups that weren't necessary, or the overhead crane shots. It's all so overdone and hammy. The film was way too long as well. They easily could have cut out 20-30 minutes and the movie could have been better for it.
Yet another disappointment from a promising trailer with a very talented cast and crew. It's basically too drawn out, boring, cheesy looking and predictable. Avoid this sunken island until you can watch it on TV.
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