355 Review

355 is a run-of-the-mill spy film much in the vein of film franchises such as James Bond, Ocean’s, and Charlie’s Angels. After being delayed for a full year due to Covid, 355 was officially released on January 7, 2022. However, unlike the aforementioned films, 355 lacks the charm of nearly all of them. Produced on a budget estimated at $40-75 million, 355 has only grossed $13 million as of writing this. It’s currently looking like 355 will lose distributor, Universal Studios, quite a bit of money. This is not surprising in the slightest. The film is simply not well-made and seriously fails on technical levels such as editing. The script is also particularly weak. Strong performances from the ensemble cast cannot save a weak script and dreadful editing.

I always like to start with positives, so I will highlight the previously mentioned ensemble cast.

Jessica Chastain (famous for her performances in It: Chapter 2 and Interstellar) is pretty good in the lead role here. Though I can’t say that her character is very well-written and developed, I enjoyed her performance throughout the film. She and Lupita Nyong’o (famous for her performances in Us and Black Panther) had good chemistry given that they had the most screen time together throughout. I’m a big fan of Nyong’o and still haven’t gotten over her Oscar snub after her brilliant performance in Us. Penelope Cruz and Diane Kruger are also solid albeit not as good as Chastain and Nyong’o. The four do a pretty good job with the weak dialogue presented to them. The cast is honestly my only positive present in the film.

The editing during the action scenes was admittedly some of the worst I’ve seen in quite a long while. I was nearly nauseous during most of the scenes, in particular, the chase scenes. 355 loves to do an old trick that many poor action films have done a thousand times. That trick is cutting every few seconds to hide the lack of fight choreography skill and hiding stunt performers. It is painfully obvious what they are trying to do here, and it is extremely agitating. I’m not exaggerating when I say the camera cuts every three to four seconds during any action scene. The constant cutting coupled with a cinematography style known as shaky cam (literally shaking the camera to create an energetic effect) really did not do the film any favors visually. Most technical aspects of this film range from below average to poor. Shot composition is another aspect that got worse as the film progressed. Many times the shots looked awkwardly framed and/or zoomed-in way too much. Extreme close-ups can be very useful to convey emotion; however, they simply look out of place when presented in this film. Director, Simon Kinberg (director of Dark Phoenix), has had two cracks at directing large-budget action films. He has failed both times, unfortunately. I find his direction very weak both here and in Dark Phoenix. Both movies don’t have a true identity or a unique feel to them.

The writing is also very poor. The plot, in particular, is very nonsensical and unrealistic. This can easily be forgiven if the script didn’t take itself too seriously. However, this wasn't the case in 355. The movie presents itself as a very serious spy/espionage narrative. From the cold open, it’s very apparent that the MacGuffin the protagonists are chasing is simply dumb. The device that the entire film’s narrative revolves around is a piece of technology that can apparently hack into any encrypted device on the planet. I mean any device. It is shown being able to crash planes, hack phones, and access banking records. The fact that this serious spy film is presenting an in-world device this over-the-top and overpowered makes it hard to truly take it seriously. 355 also has one of the worst character fake-out deaths I’ve seen in a while. I won’t go into spoilers, but it was laughable that screenwriters, Simon Kinberg, Theresa Rebeck, and Bek Smith, thought that the character’s return in the third act was some sort of twist. This character’s motivation was even worse than their fake death. Honestly, the writing was borderline laughably bad.

Overall, 355 feels like a cash-grab that’s solely banking off the fact that women will want to watch an all-female, ensemble action film. Yet, it made no money and feels hollow. Ironically, the film wasn’t even directed by a woman, very disappointing to say the least. Hollow is definitely the best way that I would describe this film. From the nonsensical plot, the shallow writing, to the God-awful editing, it’s no surprise that 355 got a January release. I recommend skipping this one and waiting for it to become available for streaming.

3/10