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Today I wake up kinda fucked up because staying late last night watching both DareDevil Born Again S02E01 and Peaky Blinders The Immortal Man because this series is legit legendary and Steven Knight is a total boss for creating this world, the movie stay on theaters for about two weeks before it drop on Netflix, for real though I have always loved how the show feels like a Godfather exploitation with the criminal business and the family pillars all mixed together, but man this movie felt like a complete letdown compared to the high stakes we got in the past, although this doesnt necessarily means its bad, its just that the movie is center point focus on this father son relationship that doesnt have a ton of context within the movie. In the recent years there have been a ton of sequel like Hollywood ran out of ideas, so much recycled material instead of original ideas and this movie just feels a bit manufacture of degraded material that doesnt really ads to the Shelby story, its just a proper good bye, one last job. The whole vibe with a tame down version of Tommy feels a bit off from the start because Tom Harper is basically a straw man director just following orders and while the shots look like the series with that cool lighting and framing that makes them look like gods the story itself is just bland and a bit weak. I wasnt expecting anything crazy that revolutionize what the series did or the industry, just to close things out but instead it feels like they are just not really trying and the result is a movie that looks pretty but has zero soul or energy behind it, part of this is because from the start of the movie we already knew the ending which is a shame because Im sure many would think this movie was just a cheap attempt to cash in on the name.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15574124/
- Platform: NETFLIX
The movie builds the story of Tommy Shelby dealing with some American Nazis who are trying to sink the economy using his son Duke as their pawn and while that sounds like it should be intense it actually takes some time specially the scenes of them going through the canal, just feels like the movie was making time until this one final battle happens, even with Rebecca Ferguson being incredible her character does not contribute anything to the action, she does to the drama but not to the action at all and just feels wasted in a script that does not know what to do with her. Last night after watching the movie I wanted to know a bit more about the production and what it took to make this movie so did a quick research and I didnt know they pull the risky move to cut Arthur out because of those real life drug issues with the actor so he starts out dead in a cheesy hallucination flashback that was poorly explained and to the point they almost didnt even show his face, they did for a few split seconds but that was it, but the cast still made it more than good enough even if the absence of the eldest Shelby brother left a massive hole that no one could fill. The episode opens with Duke leading the gang and that is exactly what we need right now to understand the state of the gang but seeing Arthur reduced to a weird ghost in a dream was just trash and they should have given him a proper send off that respected his history with the Peaky Blinders. It really feels like the writers were backed into a corner and instead of being smart about it they just chose the easiest way out which makes the whole family dynamic feel broken and weird, its like they had the script done by the time all the drama unfold instead of rewriting they just delete Arthur from the script.
Here is the thing that really works though because the only part that hits hard is seeing Tommy Shelby and his illegitimate son Duke together rolling in the mud and dirt because Duke is a badass who leads the gang with a heavy hand and I love how he is basically the 1960s version of a young Tommy with all that hunger and rage in his eyes. Barry Keoghan is solid as always and he brings so much life to his character and to a movie but it felt a bit short because at the end he is not as aggressive as it was describe but I guess this was needed to make even more clear that the king is still Tommy even when he is not wearing the crown. Duke has a legit presence on screen and you can tell he is ready to take over the family business if they ever decide to keep this going. The way the movie builds the story of their relationship is the only part that feels solid and it makes you wish the rest of the movie was focused on them instead of this weak Nazi plot that does not have any real weight or danger to it. You see them fighting on the mud and it reminds you of why the show was so dope in the first place before it got all caught up in being a prestige movie that forgot how to be a gritty crime story.
I got to be honest and not sugar coat things as usua, the movie does felt rushed towards the end, specially how Shelby dies, everything tries to come together but it just falls flat because you never really care about the villains or what they are trying to do to the country, it was just a single guy who was despicable but not enough, and that is a problem when you are dealing with a story that is supposed to be about the fate of the world because if you pay attention to the movie, there is the WWII going on and its Tommy who decides to make something good out of the mess his son and him created, that was to put a hit on Germany but it always felt personal after Ada got killed and never about wining the war. Rebecca Ferguson has some scenes where she looks great but she is basically just there to look at Tommy and say a few lines that do not mean anything while the Nazis just hang around in the background waiting to be stopped. So far you have read all the bad things I took form the movie although its not all bad because the few action scenes are really solid and that trio of Ferguson, Murphy and Keoghan was solid AF, so I dont not feel disappointed about the movie, I feel it was a good enough attempt to bring peace to Tommy Shelby, his life was done and if it wasnt for Ada's murder he would have never come back, so far from the movies I have watch this month its the best one and the only one that I have giving a relative high score but then again all this actors have better performance on other movies.
At the end of the day I would give this movie a 8 out of 10 and that is mostly just for the acting from Cillian Murphy and Barry Keoghan who are both doing their best with a script that is just meh that I have to admit and predictable too, the only wtf moment I had during the movie was when Kaulo starts telling Tommy what Arthur told her, but even that was misleading because Tommy was expecting the only truth that nobody other than Arthur and Tommy knows. If you are ot a fan of the series I would not recommend it basically because it would look and sound very average without all the context from the series, and even if you decide to watch it you might feel its a complete waste of potential that could have been a legendary finale but ended up being just another streaming movie that you will forget, maily probably because there is just one single action scene that takes care of everything. The whole story is simple and lacks the grit and the fire that made the original seasons so badass, instead I would advice to watch the tv series even though is not short at all with 6 season, yeah sounds ridiculous but thats how it is with most movies related to tv series that try to bring closure or just a bit more out of the story, reminds me "The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die (2024)" its just a carbon copy situation where Netflix takes the series and comes up with a movie that most people doesnt get and its just normal because the series is the meat and potato of the story, although this movie had way more action and back then I also felt like I was the only one who like it so much but it was because I was a fan of the tv series too. This type of movies honestly I doubt is looking for a new audience but to get those already involve into the series.
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