The Uprising Review

 

So Paul Greengrass famous for the Bourne films is out with a new movie. The biggest question is, is it any good?

The Uprising is an action period drama that's produced by Thank You Pictures and Supernix with Focus Features acting as the distributor. The movie is written and directed by Paul Greengrass.

The story is, it's 1381 and England has yet to recover from the Black Death that killed half the population. To make matters worse King Richard II is only 14 years old making him far too young to rule and he's also far too disturbed because he has nightmares of mobs of demons. When he levies a harsh new poll tax, a young grieving farmer known as the "Ploughman" rallies his fellow exhausted commoners to rebel against their tyrannical ruler.

Initial Reaction

Originally I had no plans to see this movie. But once I saw Greengrass was not only directing but Andrew Garfield (who might I add should have that third Amazing Spider-Man movie) was starring, I decided to give it a watch then give my thoughts.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

One gray area is Greengrass' directing. Now Paul Greengrass is a very good director. He's made some truly good movies such as the previously mentioned Bourne films, United 93, Captain Phillips (which I absolutely loved by the way), and last year's The Lost Bus. Having said that this is one the few times when I wasn't fully feeling his style. I think this is one of those instances where he should've toned down the shaky-cam. Usually I don't mind it too much as long as it's used well, but here it can get a little tiring. There was also the pacing in the middle section of the movie. Pacing during the beginning and ending not too bad. The middle however felt very stretched out. Lastly there's character. Characters such as John Ball and Wat Tyler are pretty good. With Ball we have a preacher with an energy pushing egalitarian ideas. With Tyler we have former soldier bringing a battle-hardened presence. So both have something interesting even though they're pushed to the side most of the time. Then we have King Richard II. He goes from a weak young teen to a more ruthless man with a colder personality. But what about Ploughman you might be asking? Well, he's just more straightforward. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I felt like if Ploughman wasn't mute for most of the time and actually spoke more than we could've gone deeper into his character and motivations.

Pros

Now there's quite a few good things about The Uprising. One of them is the tone. I've heard people complain about the "bleak tone" which is stupid. For crying out loud people the film takes place after a plague nearly wiped out humanity. Nobody's gonna be singing Kumbaya. But I digress. The tone is great because it doesn't romanticize the Peasants' Revolt. Greengrass made the right decision showing us just how brutal and intense this revolt was or supposedly was. I also want to quickly praise Pål Ulvik Rokseth's cinematography. His gloomy style also helped sell just how harsh this atmosphere is. The last thing I'll praise is Andrew Garfield's performance. Despite his character needing more work done, Garfield does a tremendous job with the limited material he had to work. Even though he had to be wordless for a lot of the movie, you can still see and feel the trauma and fury Garfield displays through facial expressions and body language.

Originally I went into this with high expectations and I left not disappointed but more of a feeling of "that was alright."

My final rating is, Okay.

That's gonna wrap things up. Come back on Monday, Sept 14th, for a brand new Fan Film Mondays! For that one I'll be reviewing a Wolverine fan film. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.