The 355
The 355
The 355 is a spy thriller with an all star cast that we thought was a pretty average movie. We did enjoy some of the action and the actors all did a good job however this film was not original enough to truly grab us.
Austin: 7.3/10
Non-Spoiler:
The 355 follows 4 separate agents from different agencies across the globe as they try to prevent a weapon of mass destruction from falling into the wrong hands. Mace Browne (Jessica Chastain) and Nick Fowler (Sebastian Stan) are tasked with retrieving the drive via a hand-off and unsurprisingly, it goes terribly. Really isn’t a movie if it goes well. After they lose the drive, Mace teams up with Lupita Nyong’o (Khadijah Adiyeme), Mari Schmidt (Diane Kruger) and Penelope Cruz (Graciela Rivera) to track down the drive. Cut off from their own agencies, they have to rely on each to prevent world destruction.
For a highly talked about spy-movie, I wasn’t very impressed to begin with. The cool gadgets were pretty lacking, and I thought our main characters should have been way more skilled. There is one scene where a jump is missed for really no reason, and it makes absolutely no sense that a highly trained agent wouldn’t be able to make that. It almost felt like the writers were trying to create underdogs. Total waste of time. It looked terrible and hurt the movie in the bigger picture. That goes away as the movie goes along, and we get some really cool fight scenes that show off their prowess as spies. I just really wish we would have started that way instead of having to develop that.
The story itself is pretty simple, with a few twists and turns. I thought the second hour was a whole heck of a lot better than the first. The start felt slow and drawn out. This didn’t need the kind of slow character development it got, and it made the beginning a lot harder to watch than necessary. The second half on the other hand was full of twists and turns. It was at this point that it really started to feel like the spy movie I expected and it was so much better. It wasn’t great, but it really pulled the movie back from the edge.
For a new release in theatres, this probably isn’t worth your money, but it is worth a watch once it comes to theatres. The characters and plot are pretty good if you can survive that first hour. Honestly, a little bit lacking for a spy movie, but still watchable.
Spoiler:
Okay, here we go, the best part of this movie. There isn’t a ton to talk about behind closed doors for this one, as not a ton went down, but I loved the ending. Sebastian Stan was absolutely fantastic. We go from losing the drive, to finding out it was a fake. Massive emotional swing. Then the cinematography almost lulls you to sleep, and then Nick Fowler and crew bust through the windows. The ruthlessness of Nick comes out in this scene when he mercilessly kills 2/3 of the families. Then our characters fold under the pressure of Penelope Cruz, who really doesn’t want to lose her family as well. Honestly, this was such a powerful set of scenes, and it almost makes the movie worth watching for that alone. The rest of the movie was fantastic, and we get a really great action scene where they steal the drive back and destroy Nick. The true ending, where Nick is killed via poison, was a really nice power move by our spies, and it left me wondering if there is going to be a second. Not quite sure yet, but that’s a movie I’d be willing to watch.
Nathanyal: 7.0/10
Non-Spoiler:
When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was scared that the whole movie would be overly feminist, where the characters were only good characters because they were women. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised that the movie didn’t try to shove feminist ideologies down our throats, as if the viewer isn’t able to read between the lines for anything. So, speaking of characters, I didn’t mind the ones that were shown here. All the women in the movie felt unique and they all had different personalities. I especially liked Graciela’s character. Being just a normal person and thrust into this situation is rough, so I liked her reactions throughout the story.
Plot wise, this movie is just your generic spy movie. It’s a plot that’s been explored plenty before, so if you’re expecting a revolutionary movie, then this isn’t it. On that note, as a story, it was alright. Most of the twists were quite predictable, and the coming together of all the characters feels a bit forced. With a bit more thought, there could’ve been a better way to incorporate all the characters and their motivations. There were also a few instances where things seemed to work out too well. Now, there were a few surprises in the end, but those are things I’ll cover in the spoiler section of this review.
Overall, The 355 was an okay movie. There was nothing too special about this movie and it was pretty generic. If you want to watch this movie, it’ll keep you moderately entertained.
Spoiler:
Now that you’re here in the spoiler section, there are a few aspects of the movie that I want to elaborate on. For one, there was one line near the end that felt out of place. Throughout this movie, it wasn’t overly feminist, however, there is one line said at the end that felt too explicit and it ruined the flow of the movie. Until this point in the movie, the characters were great, and them being women were a secondary detail. But then after that line, the tone shifted to say that these characters were great because they were women, instead of indirectly showing us. This scene just added a sour taste in my mouth.
Besides that, another scene that made sense to me was the scene where Nick killed the special people in all the main characters’ lives. That just felt like overkill and was just used more as a shock more than anything. There could’ve been a better way to tackle that scene and it just felt a bit lazy with no real impact.
The final thing I want to touch on was how bad all the characters were at being spies. As fighters or even assassins, they had skill. But as spies, they did a pretty bad job. Exposing their names to each other for no real reason was a bad move, which makes me question their professionalism.
Other than those points, there wasn’t anything else that was too special. It was a pretty generic spy movie.
Sebastian: 7.3/10
Non-Spoiler:
The 355 is one of the most mediocre films I have watched in a while. What I mean by that is this is a film that I thought was alright and did nothing awful but is so standard that I will forget about it. The story follows 5 agents from around the world who team up to stop terrorists from using a device to cripple the world. Our leads played by Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, Lupita Nyong’o, Penélope Cruz, and Fan Bingbing all do a good job showing how life as a spy has had a great toll on their characters and their characters’ families. We see how for the most part they have all become loners and their relationships are all strained because of it. I thought this movie did a decent job balancing the characters though I would say that Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger, and Lupita Nyong’o had the most screen time and importance to the plot with Chastain being our focal character. The story itself wasn’t amazing by any means but it wasn’t awful. It was pretty standard and generic with no real surprises other than one that I was actually surprised by. The action was okay but I found that they used shaky-cam too much causing it to be difficult to see what was going on in a lot of the scenes. Though when the action was more focused I found myself enjoying it thoroughly as there were some cool scenes and some badass moments. This movie does go dark at times which I appreciated as it made it feel more real when people are actually in danger.
All in all, this is a film that felt quite mediocre and average and it is one I would say is enjoyable enough to watch as I had a good time but I wouldn’t recommend going to the theatre for this one. I would wait until it is on a streaming service then check it out and see what you think.
Spoiler:
The first thing I want to touch on is the twist that the head of the CIA was also dirty. I had seen the reveal that Sebastian Stan’s character was evil coming but I did not expect the director of the CIA to also be bad so that reveal actually surprised me. I said that I found the action to be shaky and that was mostly the first half of the film that I found harder to follow but as it continued on they did have a better focus on what was happening. The movie did have fun action as you would expect from a spy film and the end fight was pretty cool. The dark part of the film I had referenced was when Nick (Sebastian Stan’s character) had captured the family of our hero’s and he actually started executing them which I just found to be super dark but it allowed our characters to have extra motivation and the actors to have strong emotional scenes. I also like the subtle way Nick was killed with the poison as it took me a moment to catch on and I preferred that to a gunshot. It does set up a potential sequel which I would be curious about if they added some new creative elements.
