I quite enjoyed the show until the end. This, however, felt like an amateur film to me. I know it isn’t because of the actors that are involved, but almost every directorial choice in this film makes no sense to me. For starters, it’s really hard to get a grasp on its tone. One minute it feels like a heightened, theatrical comicbook film, other moments feel like they’re being lifted from the _Se7en/Silence of the Lambs_ playbook. The dialogue, story choices, blocking and Andy Serkis’ hair are weird and illogical. Why did we need this prison section? Why does Andy Serkis’ character feel like a mashup of several Batman villains? Why am I supposed to root for a detective who [spoiler] escapes from prison and acts according to his own will [/spoiler]? This takes place in modern day London, not Gotham City, right? Was this a black list script that has been retooled to loosely fit with the show? Cuz I feel like I’ve been tricked into watching a B-movie I’d never watch if the _Luther_ brand wasn’t attached to it. The movie is at least a little elevated by Elba’s performance and a few effective moments of tension, but even a lot of those beats are clearly lifted from other movies. For example, there’s this whole chase scene that takes place in the London underground which blatantly rips off _Skyfall_ (a movie that’s visually “referenced” on multiple occasions). It’s just very, very weak on a creative level. It’d probably be slightly more watchable at 90 minutes, but it thinks it’s this big epic that can sustain a long runtime, which is a little misjudged to say the least.

2.5/10