Snowden, movie review

I had high expectations for this film and found myself sorely disappointed. I’m not sure who thought it would be a good idea to make a movie about someone who spends majority of their life behind a computer, but it’s as expected-boring. The fact the movie is two and half hours long doesn’t help with the fact the topic is rather dull and not action packed.

The film jumps between two time frames, the interview in the hotel room, and the various jobs Snowden held. Both time frames are boring, and really area, “paranoid geek working at a computer” and “paranoid geek sitting in a hotel room talking about working at a computer.” The acting was subpar. I know the actor for Snowden worked really hard to make himself look and sound like Snowden, but his voice came off odd. It sounded like he was trying to speak in a lower voice than what was natural for him, which was annoying for me. The other actors and actresses appeared to have also been told to sound as nerdy as possible, or as it translated to the screen, speak as nasal-y as possible.

The part I disliked the most was how Snowden’s coworkers, throughout his career, are shown to support his actions. None of them openly helped him, but it was like they silently cheered him and were grateful he was doing it. There was also a lot of praise from random people given to Snowden, which is just not something anyone wants to see on a film–a person with a huge ego getting praise to make his ego bigger.

The cool part comes at the end of the movie, so have someone wake up you up when it reaches the stage of interviews after he’s exposed everything. The real Snowden does a cameo. Once the credits start rolling, you are shown actual photos of Snowden and other such things from the real world that you just spent the last two hours watching them recreate.

This is one of those films I would recommend avoiding at all costs. Maybe watch a few scenes if you see it on television in years to come, but don’t waste money on it. It’s not dramatized enough or as I like to say, “Hollywood-ized” enough for the big screen, nor is it factually filled enough to be a documentary. Its just something between that fell flat and comes off boring.