The Magnificent Seven Review

"Sir... I have a proposition. We're decent people being driven from our homes. Slaughtered in cold blood."


The Magnificent Seven was directed by Antoine Fuqua and stars the likes of Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier and Haley Bennett. The film follows seven mercenaries who are hired to liberate a small mining town from the clutches of a deadly industrialist who is not afraid to kill anyone who gets in his way.

 Now I just wanted to state that I haven't seen any of the previous incarnations of The Magnificent Seven so I can only judge the film rather than comparing it to the previous incarnations of the film. Now let’s get straight into the review, while I don't think that this is the greatest western film that has ever been made there certainly was some good aspects in the film. The actors in the film gave some good performances in the film and one of the characters that stood out was of course Chris Pratts character who is charming (as he is in most films!) and gets most of the comedic sequences in the film which really suits Chris Pratt as an actor. Two other actors that stand out in this film where Ethan Hawke and Byung-hun Lee who play two accomplices, who look out for each other and fight together, and for me there characterisation together was one of the strongest aspects of the characters in the film. Also what is a must have element in a western film.... good old fashioned western gun fights, and guess what this film has plenty of them, especially during the final act set piece which has one massive gun fight which is just fun to watch on the big screen (but it does beg the question surely they will run out of ammo soon!!). I would also like to mention that there are some beautiful shots and scenery in this film, it really does help having a desert location with mountains everywhere and open spaces which just looks stunning on the big screen.

 On the other hand there were some aspects of the film that I was not too sure on. Personally I felt as if the first half of the film really dragged and for me didn't really pick up until the seven mercenaries enter the town (don't get me wrong there are some good sequences in the first half but it does drag). This is probably down to the fact that in the first half of the film they have to introduce so many characters that they have to spend a lot of time setting these characters up and trying to explain their motivations and trying to convince these character to help out to liberate this town. Was the set up of the characters successful... well in my opinion not really, even though there was so much time spent setting up characters they really rushed the character introductions and some characters were only introduced in a single scene, which made character motivations and development near enough impossible during these sequences and during the rest of the film. Also sometimes in the film you could barely understand what the characters were saying, sure its authentic to where the characters come from but sometimes the accents where too strong (I am looking at you D'Onofrio) or even in the edit, lines of dialogue seemed to be rushed to get onto the next shot.  

Overall this film was ok, sure there was a great final act set piece but that does not make up for the lack of development through the rest of the film. If you like a good old western film then I am certain you will enjoy watching this film but don't set your expectations to high. Personally the film needed to spend more time exploring these characters and developing them so you cared about them before the gun showdown begins but that would make the film much longer than it already is.



Verdict: 3 out of 5 stars