Isn't the Cardinal movie bad? The Douban score is only 6.4, such a review, does it mean that the movie is boring? When I watched the movie, I felt that the plot of "Cardinal" was OK, the rhythm was still relatively tight, the story was suspenseful, and it would not feel dull and boring, and Jennifer Lawrence's bold performance was different from the previous scale, and overall, "Cardinal" was still a movie with some points to watch.
As for why "Cardinal" is not rated highly, it should be related to the audience's different expectations of this spy thriller movie, and the fact that the film has some flaws in its settings and has raised unreasonable doubts. If you carefully examine the movie, there are indeed some failures, my following film review content, involving plot and story background discussion, if you have not watched the movie, please read it at your own discretion.
I think the biggest failure of "Cardinal" is in the setting of the time and space background, because it is not clearly pointed out and cannot be explained. The story of the film does not take place in the Cold War, but there is the political thinking of the United States towards the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and the story seems to take place in modern times, but there are not too many high-tech espionage weapons.
The background of the story may be set in the 80s or 90s, but the story talks about the network technology of social networking sites, and the design of the car in the movie, the medicine of skin grafting, and the design of some surveillance systems is like a modern machine and technology, such a gap makes the audience confused about the time and space of the story background, unable to cast the atmosphere of the spy background of the times, and when watching the movie, if you think that there will be special agent-like actions and special effects, you may be more disappointed.
There is also the arrangement of the role, "revenge" is an important part of the plot, but in the portrayal of female spies, quite attention is paid to the elements of "sex" and "female seduction", it seems that the strongest weapon of female spies is "flesh", and even the training of Russian agents is too objectified and narrow, and the men in the play seem to be like brainless sperm upper body, which is easy to be seduced by women's beauty and sex.
In the training of the fourth school, the headmaster (played by Charlotte Ramplin) constantly emphasizes that the body is the state, and almost every class is practiced with emphasis on "sexual matters". This is the narrative of Dominica Yegorova (played by Jennifer Lawrence), the protagonist of "Cardinal", and later wanted to portray the emotions of some double-sided spies, which was more unfavorable, and several emotional scenes did not seem to have much temperature, and the emotional reversal was too strange.
Because it is "revenge", it can be seen that the film began to arrange The intention of Dominican Igorova, and also paved the way for the emotional reaction of the later fall from a swan to a sparrow. Originally the national principal ballet dancer, he was injured in an accident while performing and could not continue to perform on stage.
Her uncle (Matthias Shonel), who works as deputy director of Russia's State Intelligence Service, uses intelligence to tell her the truth about the accident. It turned out that she was designed by another female dancer in the troupe, Sanya and male dancers, ruining her ballet career, and before she could heal her wounds, she went to ambush in the theater and retaliated against them when the two were injured.
Here you can see Dominica's fierceness and vengeance, not who can be bullied. In order to continue the medical treatment that can take care of her mother, she has to accept her uncle's arrangement, first designed by her uncle to sell her flesh, and then enter the fourth school, become a beautiful agent, and undergo inhumane "cardinal" training.
After that, she suffered a series of painful encounters, including physical and mental torture, all thanks to her uncle, which is why she would finally redesign revenge on her uncle, because her nature is to have revenge and unyielding perseverance.
At the beginning of the film, another foreshadowing is arranged, interlaced with Dominica's Swan Lake performance. It turns out that CIA agent Nathanier Nash (Played by Joel Edgerton), disguised as a businessman, bribed government agents in Russia as informants, stole intelligence, and was accidentally discovered that the two were trading.
Russian intelligence agency, to find this leak of national security "inner ghost", Dominica after receiving training, that is, was given the task of approaching Nash, after the two met, the film joined the emotional drama of virtual and real temptation, but finding out the "inner ghost" is the main line of the story of "Cardinal".
It's just that the "inner ghost" suddenly appears in the last paragraph, the general (played by Jeremy Irons) does not seem to have too many lines that intersect with Dominica, and there are not too many obvious clues hidden in the story but can be found, and the general's character jumps out directly at the end, telling Dominica that he is the pain and reason of the inner ghost. This is also the disadvantage of the final film ending, the twist is a bit fast, less clue arrangement.
"Cardinal" is adapted from the spy novel of the former CIA Jason Matthews, perhaps the author is from the CIA, the novel is realistic, and the director Francis Lawrence also wants to put some training and persecution methods, more realistic focus on shooting, especially in the arrangement of sex and power, violence.
Through dominica's role, use "sex" to see through men's power desire psychology, because she can see through men's power desire, she can use psychological tricks to "color" men, and it can be seen that she is quite clever in using "sex", she will attack and defend, take the initiative, rather than let men control the game of "sex".
If you look at the means of female spies from a sexual and psychological point of view, plus some suspense and physical torture created by the film, "Cardinal" is still an entertaining movie. Dominica's last phone call at the end of the film, with only the sound of music, hints at her love affair with Nash.
"Cardinal" has no end credits Easter eggs, will there be a sequel in the future? Jennifer Lawrence has expressed to the media that she hopes to have a chance to make a sequel because she feels that her relationship with the character is not over. I believe that this two-sided spy character has a lot of space for Jennifer Lawrence to perform.