(Review originally written at 4 August 2005)
"Swordfish" certainly ain't no bad movie but the way they tried to give this movie many layers and deeper meanings and tried to explain the motives of the main 'villain' is totally pointless and makes this movie drift away from what it should had been; Some mindless action-fun. A movie like this should need no mind work.
Definitely nothing wrong with the talent involved in this movie. Dominic Sena isn't a bad action director and the movie has a wonderful visual style, also thanks to cinematographer Paul Cameron, who has a great style. If you have seen "Man on Fire" and "Collateral" you know what I mean. Also nothing wrong with the cast here; John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Halle Berry together in one movie, is the dream for every filmmaker.
Then were did it go wrong? Well, it went wrong with the script. It tries to give the movie so many more layers and deeper meanings that it distracts from the action and make this movie even a slow one at times. Yes, luckily the movie still has some good action sequences and hey it has got John Travolta as the bad guy who is always at his best in roles like these but it all ain't enough to make this movie just slightly above average.
Also the whole hacking concept is original but also kind of ridicules, this is probably due to the graphic effects of all those computer programs. They literally tried to show graphically by computer images on the screen how an hacker works. This of course is not how it works in real-life and takes away some of the credibility of the movie that obviously tried to create a realistic atmosphere.
Yes it certainly is a watchable movie but it's not really a very entertaining one.
6/10
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