Luther: The Fallen Sun Review Idris Elba hunts down a villain Andy Serkis in Luther: The Fallen Sun Trailer

Luther: The Fallen Sun Review Idris Elba hunts down a villain Andy Serkis in Luther: The Fallen Sun Trailer

In 2019, the television series luther quite well concluded, with a suitably paced ending. Luther (Idris Elba), a detective who has been breaking the law for years, mostly with good intentions, is arrested, presumably on his way to prison. This movie is never a compelling reason to start the story over. While the scale is ramped up and there are reasonable action sequences, it does little to advance the character and lacks the show’s dark creativity. Instead of grim, it’s mostly an awkward mix of goofy and mean.

It starts with a messy setup that mixes clips from the TV finale with a new story. A young man is kidnapped by a masked menace (Andy Serkis) who discovers people’s darkest digital secrets and blackmails them into doing his bidding or killing themselves. Luther promises the man’s mother that he will get him back. The kidnapper exposes all of Luther’s past illegal misdeeds, helping to send him to prison. While locked up, Luther vows to catch this twisted serial killer, then escapes and somehow associates with the restless new Detective Superintendent, Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo).

It’s just absurd and violently dark, rather than exciting.

If that storyline seems wonky and outlandish, that’s it. Before it’s getting completely ridiculous. The Neil Cross series was often absurd, but it had imagination. It was peppered with nightmarish images that played on your most primitive fears. Who can forget the man in the clown mask at the back of the bus or the killer who pops out from under the bed? It’s just absurd and violently dark, rather than exciting. While director Jamie Payne, who helmed many of the TV episodes, successfully expands the web of Luther’s dark London, he fails to navigate the script’s many holes.

Andy Serkis plays a peculiar villain. With his dry, bright glow, he looks like an 80s game show host, creepy but not terrifying. He goes all out with a strangely improvised villain, whose motivations and ability to build a secret digital empire are barely explained. By the time we’re in his elaborate Norwegian secret lair, any hope of a satisfactory resolution is gone.

Elba is as it has always been on paper, world-worn but somehow, deep down, still optimistic, but nothing new to delve into. It all looks pretty recycled. Digital paranoia. Perverse dark web secret societies. Fighting on frozen lakes. It’s like a bag of black mirror episodes, the worst Bond parts of the Craig era and various Scandi noirs.

Source: EmpireOnline

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