Read Mixed User Reviews for The Lost City of Z

6

TyranianApr 11, 2019

Reasonably good adventure film, Hunnam is good though the film is overlong and draggy.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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4

Beowulf4862May 10, 2017

Wow, what a disappointment. Also, my wife and I were propelled to see this after all the great reviews. What the heck were they thinking? Did they see a film other than this turgid, slow, boring, plotless, overlong mess? Two thumb down, way down!

3 of 6 users found this helpful33

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6

GoziApr 23, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Lost City of Z deserves a good rating for its cinematography and the fact that it has many spectacular individual moments.. The scenes in the jungle are beautifully shot and fill you with wonder and mystery which I expected coming into this movie. The scene where the explorers stumble onto an opera theater in the middle of the jungle is a great example. Its strange but luring to watch. You're mystified and filled with a feeling of exotic pleasure.

The biggest problem however, is that these moments do not come together to fill a cohesive narrative. There's three journeys depicted in the film, which are abruptly interrupted with scenes of British high class people mingling at parties, as well as very underdeveloped scenes of the main character's family. The movie also decided to tackle some WWI action scenes and somehow relate it to the main story, but it all felt very unorganized. One of the WWI scenes shows a fortune teller talking to Fawcett about his destiny to find this lost city while he's with his soldiers in a trench in France. It felt so forced, that I giggled a bit while I was watching it. I mean, he's at war. There's Germans shooting at him. Why do all of his soldiers care about his dumb expedition to the jungle? Go focus on the war...

The other BIG reason this movie gets a bump down in rating for me is Charlie Hunnam. Have you seen him in Pacific Rim? He's a horrible actor. He tries to put on his big boy pants for this role, but he's in way over his head. He overacts too much and then loses all subtlety when it matters most. He has this look he always gives.. like this dumb english smirk he does as he thinks "look I can make good acting faces. See? See me acting like a big boy actor?" But no one buys it. Robert Pattinson is fine, but doesn't talk all that much. Sienna Miller is pretty good too, nothing to ride home about. The side characters are just there to be side characters, that's it. The jungle scenes do save this movie though, even though each of the three journeys feel rushed and incomplete. If they had made robert pattinson the main character, worked on pacing better, fleshed out the supporting characters more, and made each journey a bit more complete, its a great movie. The ending is unsatisfying, but hey its history. Not much the filmmakers can do about that.… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

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6

lvmnzApr 25, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Hunnam has always came off great as a leader, but he also is compelling as a father in the film's latter stages. Though the acting holds up, the film misses the requisite depth because it tackles so much and doesn't really emphasize anything, let alone emphasizing moments or feelings in relation to one another. The narrative is more a pastiche of vignettes than a cogent tale.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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6

TVJerryApr 24, 2017

An English Colonel (Charlie Hunnam) spends much of his life searching for the titular Amazon destination. Although this could have been a tension-filled cinematic adventure, it's rides an even keel with British reserve. Director James GrayAn English Colonel (Charlie Hunnam) spends much of his life searching for the titular Amazon destination. Although this could have been a tension-filled cinematic adventure, it's rides an even keel with British reserve. Director James Gray never adds much apprehension, even in the most perilous moments. The performances are fine and the history is interesting, but there's not much heft to the drama.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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4

marco34laApr 15, 2017

I really liked Charlie Hunnam in this movie. He gives a very nice performance. At 2 hrs and 20min, the movie lacks any real suspense or drama to warrant its hefty length. I found myself alternating between boredom and being relativelyI really liked Charlie Hunnam in this movie. He gives a very nice performance. At 2 hrs and 20min, the movie lacks any real suspense or drama to warrant its hefty length. I found myself alternating between boredom and being relatively engaged. It's not a film that takes you on a journey, rather it's sort of a slice of life, one that's crammed with too much filler and not enough substance. VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE CRITICS REVIEW. I feel like they were reviewing a man's life instead of reviewing this work as a film.… Expand

1 of 5 users found this helpful14

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5

TrevorsViewApr 21, 2017

The Lost City of Z; the one place men way back when thought of only as an obscure concept. Uncharted territory will always exist in our world, so who holds the right to claim it? It turns out a whole extra layer of humanity exists in our homeThe Lost City of Z; the one place men way back when thought of only as an obscure concept. Uncharted territory will always exist in our world, so who holds the right to claim it? It turns out a whole extra layer of humanity exists in our home called Earth, and it was the achievements of soldier Percy Fawcett who helped us dig deeper. Based on the book by David Grann as well as factual truth, The Lost City of Z aligns remarkable close with real life to tell us about how our past can help us press onward.

Director James Gray (The Immigrant) retells history through the perspectives of whoever influenced the great man’s journeys, including the British council, his three children, and his committed wife. The missus criticizes him for leaving home to explore new worlds, sharing no part of it with them. She wants him to think women have it harder than men, considering the pains of childbirth and house care. Yet she barely knows anything about the true unkind nature of South America’s rainforest, a world ruled by snakes, bats, and starvation.

Yes, every character expresses enough inner conflict to keep any man invested along with his wife and son. Although Gray’s feature may just as well best suit male audiences, as the whole family side to the feature gets underused rather poorly; Mr. Fawcett’s three kids hardly have anything to say, let alone any attention. While the oldest, played by Tom Holland (Captain America: Civil War, Lo imposible), delivers a strong treatment, his screen presence offers no justice. He does not give the worst performance ever, but you could still buy into him, unlike the insufferable child who plays the younger pre-teen version of himself.

Away from all familiarity, Mr. Fawcett takes on the dangers of the outside world in Brazil’s rainforest. His team goes on the search for a hidden civilization void of previous White folk visitation. They eventually find ancient pottery, only miles away from a native tribe, who quickly become allies. These non-English speakers contribute well to the story, except they receive too little dialogue to leave a true impression on anyone, including the protagonist.

In fact, most of the time, these Red-skins are the arrow launching, bloodthirsty savages the British stereotype them as. Their weapon of choice cause unimaginable chaos for these sightseers, including entanglement underwater behind a cloud of blood. It sets all sort of energy upon the screen, guaranteeing an aggressive transportation into the environment, clearly the film’s best moments.

Then once the action screeches to a halt, we have the camerawork by cinematographer Darius Khondji (Evita, Se7en) to watch. In fully sincerity, he has created probably the worst efforts of his career—no contrast exists in the already dark and grainy image. He just makes everything green and sunny, even if it means blowing out details in the facial features. Thankfully however, the tremendous eyesore turns slightly merciful three-quarters of the way through the movie. Here, the genre briefly turns into a relatively unimpactful war drama, which still manages to deliver Saving Private Ryan-esque thrills to those testosterone senses.

Numerous other traits uplift this average joe of a biopic, such as the believable period costumes and the breathtaking greenery, while others pull it back, such as a forgetful musical score and Robert Pattinson’s acting (progress is being made though). Maybe things could have worked better if Bleecker Street aimed for a hard-R rating, as the Brazilians themselves features all sorts of related red flags: naked overweight women, cannibalism, to name a few. At least nothing appears excessive enough to make any teenagers squirm with immaturity.

So now the question remains: “should I bother sitting through a biopic that probably won’t make it past 20 million in the box office?” The Lost City of Z may not be the riskiest motion picture ever made, but it offers precisely what worldwide audiences need while considering the ancestry of ourselves, and how the inadequateness of our self-knowledge points us towards a single reality: we all come from the same soil.… Expand

1 of 6 users found this helpful15

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6

LamontRaymondMay 12, 2017

It's a decent film, just overly long. Jax Teller is particularly good in this one, actually. And it's an interesting story of which I've never heard, so I learned something, which is nice.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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5

moonman1994Aug 24, 2017

The highlights of The Lost City of Z are that it is entertaining enough to keep you watching it all the way through and its characters are gripping enough to keep you watching as well. However the movie has a couple major flaws. The first ofThe highlights of The Lost City of Z are that it is entertaining enough to keep you watching it all the way through and its characters are gripping enough to keep you watching as well. However the movie has a couple major flaws. The first of which is the directing is very mediocre mostly due to the lighting. At many times in what seems to be an attempt to show ambient light the scenes appear yellowish which would be forgivable if it didn't happen again and again. Also the directing never is able to capture the size of the Amazon in a satisfactory way. The second major flaw of the film is it's many blatant historical inaccuracies. The film builds Colonel Percy Fawcett up as this great explorer (which he wasn't) and as a bastion of equality (which he wasn't as well). Normally I can forgive films for some historical inaccuracy so long as it ads to the flow of the film or makes for better story telling but in this case The Lost City of Z puts a man on a pedestal that never should be. He was an abject failure as an explorer that led to the deaths of far to many men that went with him. His "city of Z" theory wasn't based firmly in logic as the movie would imply either. To me it's a fatal flaw to make a man into a hero in a film if he was nothing close to the sort.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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6

RalfbergsSep 29, 2017

The number of my score might have been higher if I didn't feel like the movie was stretched out and also I was let down for some of my expectations for how adventurous this movie will be.

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6

HotelCentralJul 18, 2018

I give "Lost City of Z" a 6 because, in the end, I would not recommend this film to anyone except a person I did not like very much. Not that it's bad; it just isn't very entertaining. Our intrepid explorer sets out to discover the sourceI give "Lost City of Z" a 6 because, in the end, I would not recommend this film to anyone except a person I did not like very much. Not that it's bad; it just isn't very entertaining. Our intrepid explorer sets out to discover the source of a river in "Amazonia." Call me crazy but traveling upriver by raft seems like a lot more work than hacking a path through the underbrush. And how exactly do you get closer to the source of a river by traveling downstream, as happens in a couple of scenes? And virtually nothing is said about how one expects to survive in the jungle for years, except that, at one point, someone shoots a wild hog.

And then in the middle of it all, our intrepid explorer, an officer in the British army, goes off to fight in World War One. Well, you know, it's expected, or so one might say. But what in the world does it have to do with the actual Lost City of Z?

For all that passes by on the screen, very little that seems significant actually occurs. Our explorer makes not one but several trips into the jungle. He meets "indians". He records measurements with his surveying gear. He fights in the war. His wife sees him off bravely every time he departs and presents him with yet another child upon his return. And she's there of course to see him arguing with the membership of the Royal Geographic Society over the likelihood of some indigenous people building a great city of gold in the middle of the jungle.

Our explorer, you see, is the most open-minded fellow in the group. For some reason I do not normally think of British army officers from the late Victorian era when the words "open-minded" are uttered, or written, but perhaps I'm just biased.

The acting is fine. The visuals are nice. But ultimately I do not believe that the movie-makers knew very much about jungles or how to survive there or what exactly made this fabled lost city interesting enough to be worth everyone's time.

Worse still, the ending is a disappointment. Try this film if you dare but don't say you weren't warned.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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6

DaddyO3Feb 14, 2018

The story here was pretty decent. The film seemed to drag at times though. It felt like a pretty low budget work - borderline cable level documentary / feature film.
I'd give it 6/10.

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