The Outsider Review: Missed Opportunity for a Grand Epic

<p>Jared Leto has gotten plenty of bad press recently and for good reason&period; The guy is talented when he’s attached to the right project and it seemed like he might be redeeming himself when he landed the leading role in this Netflix original&period; There was some controversy after some claimed the film to be figurative whitewashing the leading role&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The story itself centres on the interesting concept of a former US marine who becomes integrated with the Yakuza during the 1950’s&period; A compelling idea for a story that could explore some powerful themes centring on the relationship between East and West at a sensitive time&period; It’s a shame that The Outsider fails in the most unimpressive manner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1497px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;ia&period;media-imdb&period;com&sol;images&sol;M&sol;MV5BOTc5OTUxOGYtNDFkMy00MmQxLWFkNDctMWFkNmM4NTE5MTNjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTEzNjA2NzM&commat;&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SY1000&lowbar;CR0&comma;0&comma;1497&comma;1000&lowbar;AL&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Outsider &lpar;2018&rpar;" width&equals;"1497" height&equals;"1000" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Outsider&comma; Netflix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Okay&comma; so the film is not as God-awful as some critics have stated&period; There are some great elements here&semi; the cast&comma; the visuals and the soundtrack are all very impressive and handled with care&period; The problem is everything else in The Outsider&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Story<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The story follows Nick&comma; a former US marine that’s been imprisoned since the end of the war and through a dramatic event within the prison&comma; befriends a member of a Yakuza family&period; Within a short amount of time&comma; Nick &lpar;Jared Leto&rpar; helps his new friend escape from the prison and sometime later and is freed by the powers to be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Upon his release&comma; Nick learns that his former cellmate pulled some strings to get him released and now a debt must be paid back&period; From here&comma; Nick decides to fully integrate into the family and become a member of the Yakuza&comma; in an era soon after the Second World War where tensions were high between the two cultures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Now there is a very interesting concept at the heart of the story which could bloom into a tale of cultural integration&period; The pressures of having the two cultures merge through love and violence could be an interesting character study of someone who’s out of their element in the most extreme situation&period; Having a former US marine who fought the Japanese during WW2 would be a fascinating and daring way to do just that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But we don’t get any of this&period; Instead what we get is a very pretty looking&comma; shallow and rather dull crime thriller that tries to be <em>The Departed<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Drive<&sol;em>&comma;<em> Only God Forgives<&sol;em> and every other better Yakuza movie ever made&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1200px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;ia&period;media-imdb&period;com&sol;images&sol;M&sol;MV5BZjJjMWFhZDUtNmYyNS00NjVmLWI4MzktMDZhNWY3ODY4YjgxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNjUwNzk3NDc&commat;&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Jared Leto and Tadanobu Asano in The Outsider &lpar;2018&rpar;" width&equals;"1200" height&equals;"801" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Outsider&comma; Netflix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The biggest problems with The Outsider are the story and unfocused direction we’re supposed to follow&period; The plot begins very confident enough to grip your attention but soon becomes a dull and tedious mess that ends up being a generic crime thriller&period; There are various plot holes&comma; story elements which go nowhere and are forgotten about within a matter of minutes along with poor pacing and what feels like a paint by numbers story&period; Essentially you can predict every step of this movie including which characters are about to die and where the story is going&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Direction<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>Watching the first 40 minutes of The Outsider will heavily remind you <em>Drive<&sol;em>&period; There are plenty of elements the director clearly took from <em>Drive<&sol;em> and<em> Only God Forgives<&sol;em> to use here to give a grander sense of depth and meaning to the story and to the character of Nick&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jared Leto plays the quiet&comma; recluse leading character that seems nice enough but has vile&comma; explosive bursts of violence with various set pieces that end in violence and the tone feel very akin to <em>Drive<&sol;em>&period; But the flaw with this is that we don’t know Nick well enough&comma; to begin with&comma; and early on we see him as an unhinged maniac who resorts very quickly to violence and then in the second half seems very calm and composed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This film also relishes a little too heavily on gore to shock you without any weight or substance to it&period; <em>Drive<&sol;em> used clever edits and only carried out the more gruesome scenes later in the film&comma; once characters were established and did so with great intensity&period; Also with Ryan Gosling’s <em>Driver<&sol;em>&comma; while a professional getaway driver was for the first half of the film a gentle recluse who did care for another human being&period; So when he becomes more violent and aggressive&comma; it’s an interesting change of character that feels natural&period; Nick is all over the place as a character and also lacks any real identity or a worthy investment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I get that the Yakuza are violent and this guy is a former marine&comma; but the first hour is a dull collection of violent acts with no sense of purpose&period; Time better spent developing characters and story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;ia&period;media-imdb&period;com&sol;images&sol;M&sol;MV5BZTFkMTFjOTktM2NkZi00NWQxLTkzYjYtMjVjMmI2YWNlNDUyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzI1NzMxNzM&commat;&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Outsider&comma; Netflix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<h2>Wasted potential<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>There were great opportunities to explore PTSD or craft a clever story about revenge or anything other than a dull crime thriller&period; Maybe Nick be an internal threat to the Yakuza or is this a clever plan for him to gain entry into the Yakuza&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But while the first half of the film is a brutal&comma; thuggish tale of a wannabe gangster&comma; the tone shifts to a bland&comma; boring crime thriller that really doesn’t need Jared Leto’s character at all&period; I hoped for something that explored an interesting character study&comma; such as Gangster No&period; 1 in Japan or dived into the bigger picture of having a white&comma; American join the Yakuza which I’m sure would’ve been a big deal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>There’s no tension&comma; no drama that comes from his integration apart from one supporting character who decides to turn his back on everything he loves because he’s slightly jealous&period; Trust me what he does just seems extreme for being envious of a white dude joining the Yakuza and even so he doesn’t really speak about it&period; He could’ve committed the acts for any reason&period; From this point&comma; everything goes by so quickly that hardly anything develops in the story and the film’s third act and ending just feels rushed and everything is wrapped up neatly within 5 minutes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;ia&period;media-imdb&period;com&sol;images&sol;M&sol;MV5BZTFkZDlmNjQtYjM0Ny00ZTVhLTg4ZTYtMDkyMDE1NWI3MGMwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzI1NzMxNzM&commat;&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Outsider&comma; Netflix<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There’s a moment later in the film which seems to be important&comma; as Nick is given a smidge of backstory and this event could’ve diverted the story into a new path&period; But this moment of the film starts and ends within four minutes and is completely forgotten about leaving us to wonder why it happened&period; It’s a scene that you can see the outcome coming a mile away and becomes another useless segment of the film that should’ve been developed or just cut out completely&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2>Conclusion<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p>The Outsider could’ve been a brilliant period piece that compelled viewers to observe a clash of cultures in a fragile era just after the war by integrating a Western who served in the army to join one of the world’s most deadly organisations&period; There is a good film here but it’s ruined by mixed directions&comma; a bland and uninspired plot and a missed opportunity to explore some compelling themes&period; It’s not awful at all but this is such a boring film that misses the mark that I do ask why even have Jared Leto here or his character if nothing relevant happens to make his existence meaningful in the first place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;