The Duality of the film ‘Terminal’

This review is for the film Terminal, not The Terminal. Small difference. No Tom Hanks. Yes Margot Robbie. No airplanes. Yes trains.

The film Terminal is a mix of Tarantino-esque arguments between hitmen, Sin City-esque noir, and neon lights. Throw in a cast of villains, cliche twists, and we’ve got a really interesting movie. There’s not much chatter online about this film, and the little I have seen isn’t very kind. There’s two revelations in the film, and admittedly they’re not overly complex, but that’s not enough reason to drag the film into mediocrity.

A point that I didn’t see a lot of discussion about was the writing. The dialogues between people, and the conversations they’re having, weren’t that interesting. The dialogue wasn’t, like, fascinating. Each conversation ran the risk of being self-contained, with no impact on the plot, and felt like it was meant to be banter, instead of actually just being banter. Y’know? On the other hand, those conversations did paint a picture to characterize the cast. And the cast was tasty.

There was so much going on with each character, but not in the sense that each person had their own, three-act story. The characters’ interactions with one another defined each individual, almost as if differentiating each other by comparison. It was really great, for once, seeing character being formed in contrast to another based on how they interacted with the same objects, subjects, situations, and issues. It’s typically considered a pretty basic writing technique to have two characters encounter the same obstacle, and their solution is what underlines their core values. This film jacked that concept up to the max, and, as you may find on your second watch, fits thematically with one of the two twists.

The cinematography was incredible. It was bold and stylish and confident, and even when it tried using dutch angles and breaking the 180 rule, it felt… fun. It felt like someone wearing a backwards cap with a cheeky grin. It felt like they knew it didn’t belong, and that’s why it’s been done. The reason that the rule-breaking felt excusable was because fundamentals were there, being proven in many other parts of the film. The movie proved it knew what it was doing, and that’s why it was ok to break rules.

In all, I loved Terminal. Sure, the ending wasn’t truly cathartic, and I do think that the script and pacing needed a one-over. I agree with the folks online that the twisty reveals were a bit too blatant because the cast was too small to allow for so much mystery, but there’s no denying the sheer effort thrown into this film. I can’t remember the last time a film remembered that it was a movie and did what it could to push visual limits for the sheer sake of just looking at the movie. Or the last time a movie said, ‘we’re gonna ham it up. we’re all going to ham it up. Go have fun’. And it was fun, dude.

I usually don’t care to protect readers from spoilers in these reviews, but in the cast of this film, I think it would take away from your initial viewing if I confirmed any suspicions you’d build yourself. And I say initial viewing because I sincerely restarted the film when it ended so I could eagerly hunt and pick up on all the clues I’d missed the first time, and I think you’d feel better about the movie having watched it twice. I’d also recommend that you not expect this film to be high-brow thematic cinema. It’s a movie. It’s a movie that knows it’s a movie, and wants to be a fun movie. So just enjoy it. But if you can’t, then this movie is a truly rated

YMMV

I watched Terminal on Hulu.

Wondering how my rating system works? Let me explain!