I didn't know much about the war of currents at the end of the 19th century, so I went in just taking the movie as it is.
The movie is quite long covering the whole of the "War of Currents" between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. As Edison invents the lightbulb, among other things, Westinghouse discovers cheaper, more accessible way of delivering electricity to the general public.
For some inexplicable reason, Edison refuses to meet with Westinghouse, resulting in a few ideas of him stolen. Thus Edison runs on a ruthless and relentless path to destroy Westinghouse's reputation with his AC current by smearing him in the press and going a step further by killing numerous animals with electricity.
What I was hoping for was more in depth characterisation with Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla, who is unfortunately underused in this film. But instead the camera, which is a little too fond of itself, zooms everywhere, tilts dutch angles in out of place scenes, blurs when it's not supposed to and morphs into a fish eye lens.
Camera tricks and good scenery can only be as good as the story its presenting and frankly it wasn't enough for me.
That being said, I do not regret seeing it. It's an important part of history and also has current themes of fake news and ego run rampant.
The chance meeting at the end between Edison and Westinghouse is probably my favourite. Westinghouse gives him some much needed advice about not being so selfish and sharing the work with other people. Edison walks away and it's unsure whether he finally listens to him. Despite all the horrible muck-ups he did to other people and to himself, I found myself hoping he had learnt his lesson and found some peace.
The movie is quite long covering the whole of the "War of Currents" between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse. As Edison invents the lightbulb, among other things, Westinghouse discovers cheaper, more accessible way of delivering electricity to the general public.
For some inexplicable reason, Edison refuses to meet with Westinghouse, resulting in a few ideas of him stolen. Thus Edison runs on a ruthless and relentless path to destroy Westinghouse's reputation with his AC current by smearing him in the press and going a step further by killing numerous animals with electricity.
What I was hoping for was more in depth characterisation with Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla, who is unfortunately underused in this film. But instead the camera, which is a little too fond of itself, zooms everywhere, tilts dutch angles in out of place scenes, blurs when it's not supposed to and morphs into a fish eye lens.
Camera tricks and good scenery can only be as good as the story its presenting and frankly it wasn't enough for me.
That being said, I do not regret seeing it. It's an important part of history and also has current themes of fake news and ego run rampant.
The chance meeting at the end between Edison and Westinghouse is probably my favourite. Westinghouse gives him some much needed advice about not being so selfish and sharing the work with other people. Edison walks away and it's unsure whether he finally listens to him. Despite all the horrible muck-ups he did to other people and to himself, I found myself hoping he had learnt his lesson and found some peace.