16th Hall of Fame

A pretty enjoyable flick this was, with more worthy drama than in the rest of its kind. The acting is all around great by the entirety of the cast, although, I'm not sure where the craze for Ben Foster is coming for, since he didn't really stand out acting wise, at least in my eyes. The cinematography is better than one would expect, I for one was craving for more shots of the deserted landscape. The characters and their interactions, while very "seen it before", were still done pretty well.

Though, I can't help but be sick and tired of the cool and charming, but totally badass villain in action films, it has become a trope now, and I'm not a fan of it. Just as much as I'm not a fan of another trope, which allows hundreds of bullets to be shot off, by men of experience, without anything ever landing on the target. There are more clichés in the movie, along with elements that simply don't make any sense, but those are just petty nitpicks, which aren't even worth mentioning. I still would've preferred more originality from the story, and to have it at least be less by the books, but with this being a remake of a much older film, I guess I should give its plot way more credit, since it preceded all of the occurrences of the excessive usage.

What I enjoyed the most was Bale's character, and the slow reveal of his past and motives, that was done exceptionally well with absolute smoothness and finesse. Contrarily to the latter, I was very iffy about how everything ended, and as much as I try to rationalize Ben Wade's actions throughout this ending, I'm still left with a little bit of emptiness. I even checked out the original's ending, which wasn't that great either, but still more acceptable.



Anyway, for a guy who avoids westerns like the plague, this was a very enjoyable movie all throughout.