Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

Title: Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile

Year: 2019

Genre: Biography | Crime | Drama |

Runtime: 110 min

Director: Joe Berlinger

Starring: Lily Collins, Zac Efron, Angela Sarafyan

 6,7/10

A courtroom frenzy ensues and sweeps 1970s America when a young single mother meets Ted Bundy.

HIGH POTENTIAL, FLAT STORYTELLING

Ted Bundy liked the attention. He was a man of the public. Hell, he did even become his own lawyer. He was the two-faced psychopath that some has admired for years, others fear for the life upon the day he was executed and gone forever.  Why this movie even was produced remains a mystery, since most of his life is already well-documented and he had an eye for media and attention. His contribution for upcoming stories should be notifying but this takes his life in a completely different direction, an unnecessary one too.

The art of the motion picture has often the ability to bring dead people to life. To make them real again and sometimes it’s a good thing, others not so much. I was excited for this movie on how it was going to tell the real story behind this crazy and insane person. It was even intriguing. They had a talented cast and a fascinating main character to based it on. They have even an actor that has resembles this murderer. And that’s pretty much everything this movie did right. The dialogue and editing feel off just like the pace and the constant jump cuts, which is rough and not carefully through enough to make this story remotely believable.

Zac Efron gives although a decent performance as the psychopathic killer but as the perspective has altered with, it hard to think him of a believable performer but it’s an okay job he’s doing. Lily Collins does a decent job too, as mention before but as they’re using an actor from Twilight, her merit list should’ve been better by now, but it doesn’t.  This maybe is not entirely their plan but there is something missing in terms of the plot and acting. I wish the movie showcased more from his side and psyche to get a better understanding of why the things that happened, happened. The perspective is from his girlfriend and the main reactions to the killing come from her, which makes it not as interesting as I just wish it would be. It’s fun to see Jim Parson in more dramatic roles but it’s going to take some time before not to him always as Sheldon Cooper.

It has so much potential to go into an interesting direction but the whole execution of the whole movie feels poorly done. Everything that shows in the trailer, provides something else in the movie. It doesn’t have an exciting, thrilling tone that Netflix tries to give. It shows in the movie, but it doesn’t go deeper, which make everything rather more confusing. It fell flat and it’s a throwaway of good material.