I always subtract a few points right off the bat if it's not at least a "very good" film when the film is made on a large budget and has a-listers attached. You would think when you can spend top dollar for a script and an a-list director, the film would be solid in all respects.

In the case of an overrated studio film, I always employ this test: if the same film was made with no-name talent, would it have been as successful?

Baby Driver, for example, is a great example of an overrated film that would never have been seen by more than a few hundred people if made on a small budget with a no-name cast.

I never understood this film, but I'm going to watch it again to see if I can figure out if it features a protagonist on a mission with a character arc or if it's just a collection of vignettes and long drawn out speechifying.

I think a problem is that the main character arguably isn't the titular one and Fassbender can channel his inner android even when he isn't in an Alien film.

I rewatched this film today and yesterday. So... we have Malkina as the secret antagonist and the counselor as the greedy protagonist with some mysterious mechinations in between having to do with a highjacked load of drugs. And I have to ask, what motivates the counselor to want to buy a huge load of drugs from a drug cartel? And I have to ask, what motivates Malkina to screw over her friends? And, the truck got highjacked by Malkina's operatives, but then who highjacked the truck from them?

@MongoLloyd said:

I rewatched this film today and yesterday. So... we have Malkina as the secret antagonist and the counselor as the greedy protagonist with some mysterious mechinations in between having to do with a highjacked load of drugs. And I have to ask, what motivates the counselor to want to buy a huge load of drugs from a drug cartel? And I have to ask, what motivates Malkina to screw over her friends? And, the truck got highjacked by Malkina's operatives, but then who highjacked the truck from them?

Counselor's motives = not sufficiently established. Insert generic financial hardship here I suppose. They didnt even establish him as a risk taker or anything. Or making a stupid business commitment whilst drunk. Plus he'd just bought an expensive wedding ring.

Malkina's motives = no deep emotional connection to any of the folk she would be screwing over and a chance of $20million if she can pull it off. I'm happier with this.

Who re-hijacked the drugs = I assume the cartel that supplied them. The suggestion was that the lorry was running a tracker next to the engine, and possibly needed it activated in order to start the inginition? So presumably they could access the tracker information and re-take the vehicle. Or maybe they had operatives shadowing the handover from a distance and followed the situation as it unfolded.

Ahhhh, so Malkina didn't make out except for getting the middle man's computer.

I'm ok with Malkina being Malkina, but yeah, the Counselor was just too nebulous for my liking. Other than loving his woman and being a public defender, I didn't see anything that could make a viewer like him or want him to win.

It would be nice if ALL the long, drawn out philosophizing and storytelling could have had something directly to do with the story at hand. Some did, but most did not.