Zodiac

Synopsis

Zodiac takes the trend of psycho serial killer into reality by presenting us with a mystery that spans three decades. A shooting occurs in the late 1960’s and the killer sends a letter to the local newspaper with a cypher to be placed on the front page. The Zodiac killer continues his murderous games while managing to stay out of the reaches of law enforcement sleuths until a lack of progress turns his case up cold. Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) a cartoonist for the newspaper and a fan of puzzles and books, becomes fascinated with the Zodiac killer and dives head-first into the mystery and elusiveness of the killer.

Opinion

Zodiac was less a movie and more a documentary of a cold case as seen through the boring life of a cartoonist. There are no big twists or turns to keep the general audience intrigued and no gore or violence for the other half. What we get is a story and a very long one with a very weak ending… which happens to be a black screen with a write-up about the results of the investigations and of the killer himself. I cannot say the film was boring, but it did not feel like a movie and sadly it is not deserving of all the high ratings I am seeing it recieve from others. If there was a bit of closure in either the main character’s family/love life or in the Zodiac killer himself, it may have saved this film for me.

Conclusion

Zodiac is the second three hour movie to utterly disappoint me. The first was “A.I.” and the only thing that prevented me from getting up to walk out on this egg was the hope that the end would make it all “make sense”. Unfortunately this never occured and I was left with an empty wallet and an empty feeling from this movie. I cannot recommend this movie even as a rental. If you are a crime/cold-case fan, watch a good documentary on Court TV before wasting your time on this. Robert Downey Jr. was brilliant and was the only spark of light in this film. The acting was decent and the music was decent to say the least, just not enough to save it in my opinion. Thanks for reading.

Written by Greg Dragon – who has written 365 reviews on Spicy Movie Dogs.

Cinephile and opinion writer, Greg Dragon has been a fan of movies since the 80's when Kung Fu theater was all the rage and Roger Moore was James Bond. As an opinion writer that has reviewed Box Office releases on a number of prominent websites, Greg is the founder and lead critic of Spicy Movie Dogs.