Munich2005

82/100 I think this might be one of Steven Spielberg's most morally complex film, the kind you imagine he could never make, but he has, and the result is glorious. Now, I give this praise to a lot of good films and it's no different here, so let's just get it out of the way and say the cast is great. Eric Bana is great as the lead character, and really gets into some of the moral complexities. His squad also comes off as a better version of the squad from Saving Private Ryan, I got weirdly attached to them and kind of sad when they died. I did like Daniel Craig as Steve, though, he was easily my favourite character and I'm glad he survived the whole movie. The first third of this movie is an excellent "spy movie" for lack of a better term, with incredible music by John Williams as well as great work building up a tense atmosphere. I love the decision to make every assassination feel less like a co-ordinated attempt and more like they're barely managing it, with a ton of complications throughout. Spielberg's directing also works for the atmosphere, making it incredibly built up for the deconstruction taking place during the second act. It works as a brilliant deconstruction of the spy thriller which shows the very real issue at hand, as multiple characters begin to question their mission. This is some lengthy political debate which I'm not willing to go into here, not believing it to be the right space, but I love how this movie shows it for what it really is: a morally complex issue with perhaps no answer, and no concession from either side. It's a very topical issue, even more so today, and I commend the filmmakers for how they handled it. However, with the film's amazing second act out of the way, I can get to my problems with the third act. My main problem with the film is that it goes on too long, and while a better film might have handled the runtime well, this film makes no effort to hide how slow and plodding the third act is. Now, I will admit, the final scene does a good job at showing how neither side will back down, but in the end I feel the third act moves way too slowly and any scene that isn't boring is weird, such as the scene where we see scenes of immense battle intercut with the protagonist ejaculating with his wife. In the end, this film has some great setup, but unfortunately the payoff isn't there, and as a result it just kind off peters off into a weak and ineffective last forty minutes with a few good scenes, limiting an already great movie from achieving masterpiece status.