Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter One
Review: First and foremost. That title is just too dang long. This movie is three hours of somewhat connected storylines in the Civil War era US. This felt like a TV pilot with various characters and stories that are mostly unresolved by the end of the film. It also ends with a series of unrelated, quick shots that felt like a “next time on” trailer at the end of a tv show, and it was literally 10 minutes long. No dialogue. Just clips and music. And it ends with a slow pan on Giovanni Ribisi’s character that isn’t even in the movie at all aside from this. I understand this was to set up the 3 potential sequels, and I’m all for world building even across multiple films, but this overdoes it to where the first film can’t stand on its own, because no storyline concludes. Or progresses much at all for that matter. They just all kind of start. This is pretty bad in hindsight since the status of the 3 sequels is up in the air. There were some notable performances like Sam Worthington & Jena Malone, and I also enjoyed the brief performance of Hayes Costner. However, most of the characters felt underdeveloped, I would assume due to the sheer size of the ensemble. It really felt like each character only got a few minutes of screen time and only a handful of scenes each. There are so many notable & promising actors, but they were all wasted in such limited roles. Also, if you’re watching for Kevin Coster, note that he doesn’t appear until an hour into the film. SPOILERS I also wish Jamie Campbell Bower’s character would’ve gotten some more scenes before getting killed because he had the makings of a compelling villain.
High: I respect that this is Costner’s passion project and what he was trying to do here. The film was very visually appealing, but that was really all it had going for it. I hope for his sake he can get the rest of the movies out, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he didn’t. I personally would not recommend spending 3 hours of your life watching this unless the sequel gets a release date.
Low: This movie was just incredibly boring. It doesn’t have the charm that a Western needs to make it exciting. I also had an incredibly low amount of notes, which should not be the case for a movie with an over 3 hour run time. Like I previously stated, there were too many storylines going on and it introduced too many characters, yet it feels as though nothing happens.
Review: 4.5/10
