Carter was a style over substance dizzying 132 minutes of utter ridiculousness, ruined by horrible camerawork and a convoluted story. Huge props to lead actor Joo Won, all the skilled stuntmen, insanely choreographed action scenes and the great action set pieces and visuals, but sadly, all that effort was wasted on unwatchable dizzying, seizure-inducing, single-take-looking headache-inducing camera work - and just as bad editing. Had all the great action and fight scenes been shot normally - with tact, intelligence, and aim, this film's action could've topped the Mission Impossible films. But instead, it was like a drunk on meth, with one fancy camera drone trying to keep up with the action. Then add a decent conceptual story, that ended up being incoherent and tried too hard to be smart with convoluted twists, and drag it out with unnecessarily repetitive long action scenes - for over 2 hours. It was frustrating, exhausting, and a huge missed opportunity to be a great action film. If you want to see it done properly - with great action and a great story, watch The Roundup with Don Lee. Writer and director Byung-gil Jung needs to stick to basic camera work and lessen the overbearing dramatics, as well as work towards better story-telling - in under 2 hours.
Plot summary
Carter, who awakens two months into a deadly pandemic originating from the DMZ that has already devastated US and North Korea. He who has no recollections of his past finds a mysterious device in his head, and a lethal bomb in his mouth. A voice in his ears gives him orders to avoid getting killed and he's thrown into a mysterious operation while the CIA and North Korean coup chase him close.
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A perfect example of "too much of a good thing is bad".
Well, if you are a fan of,...
Outrageously overused drone shots, really poor CGI, bad acting and terrible scripts and endless seizure inducing one-take shots then this is the film for you. I give it a two for trying to put up exciting action scenes, but all of the other things really detract from its overall watch-ability. And in all seriousness, if you are prone to seizures, skip this one.
Headache Inducing
Editor: How many cuts & transitions do you want?
Director: Yes
Man! My head hurts and my eyes need some rest. Even though I do love these fast-paced action features, this turned out to be too much! I know and I understand that there would be some who have an undying appetite for such kinds of filmmaking, and that's fine, cause to each their own! But if you ask me, I could not enjoy the ride as much as I wished for.
Part of it is due to how turbulent & disorderly it had ultimately become! What was inaugurated as an inventive piece that comprises distinctive one-of-a-kind action, slowly turned itself into one tiring repetition. Add cheesy performances and a suboptimal write-up to that equation and we got ourselves a highly forgettable affair.