What tells me that I love this movie is not the fact that I ignored many of its possible flaws, but that I just didn't notice them at all, at least not in this first viewing. One thing I don't want to lose as a movie viewer, and even as a critic, is that ability to want to enjoy a movie and not necessarily to approach the experience from a sort of clinical position where I am simply looking for what it isn't doing, or how well it adheres to film theory. I want to first just enjoy it on the level of being a person that enjoys movies, as a patron who just wants to be taken on a ride. For me, that is exactly what I got from Gareth Evans dark grisly fable. I was thrilled, put on the edge of my seat, treated to white knuckle tension, gifted characters that I could relate to on some level, but more importantly, characters driven by marvelously committed actors that I didn't have to like to want them to win, or to root for them or hate them. By the end, when the final events started to unfold, I noticed my shoulders dropping, the air leaving my chest, the tension held for what seemed like nearly the entirety of the film being relieved, and I noticed how invested I was in the action unfolding before me because of the way my legs shifted, fidgeting about. The way my heart dropped in certain parts of the movie where it seemed that the cruelty was unrelenting informed me, I was immersed, told me I was being engrossed, and enthralled.
