The Lost City of Z Reviews

Summary In 1925, Lieutenant Colonel Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), a British military-man-turned-explorer, searches for a lost city deep in the Amazon. His quest grows into an increasingly feverish, decades-long magnificent obsession that takes a toll on his reputation, his home life with his wife (Sienna Miller) and children, and his very exi...

• Adventure

• Biography

• Drama

• History

The Lost City of Z is as much about the struggle of progress as the real-life story it’s telling, and Gray sharply observes the ways in which mankind continuously tears itself apart, usually in the name of progress.

The movie may, in the end, frustrate your desire for straight-up thrills and clear answers, but its irresolution is masterful — sincere, generous and entirely appropriate to the deeply searching story it has to tell.

A modern masterclass that blends history, fiction and the quest for personal achievement into a delicately crafted 2 and a half hour journey through time.

A marvellous epic that unexpectedly goes more for an emotional, resonant introspective view of human's psychology than an adventure flick. Its characters are complexely textured and three-dementionalized, and their feelings and desires show us the brightest ambitions and worst dispairs of human race in general. It resonates universally through its characters. The locations are beautiful, as well as the depiction of historical accounts and look and the performances are impeccable.

This is the type of adventure that transports you to a world so exotic and lush and mysterious and dangerous, it feels as if we’re on a different planet.

Aside from the captivating cinematography, the narrative is adventurous and existential. Not only does it examine the ethos of the early 20th century — including wartime — it also surveys humanity as a whole. It aims to dispel a superiority complex but manages to stay bold and progressive throughout.

The movie is 141 minutes long but you rarely feel its weight; that’s how confident a filmmaker Gray has become. All The Lost City of Z lacks is a great leading actor, someone magnificent and flawed like a Peter O’Toole.

The ending is muddled as an unsuccessful attempt is made to provide closure to a story that, if told frankly, shouldn’t have one.

The book’s subtitle was “A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon,” and the film gets that part wrong. It’s deadly dull and conspicuously short on obsessiveness.

It has been a while since I read a book, then followed up watching the movie on the big screen. I loved the book and enjoyed the true life story of Colonel Percy Fawcett. What the explorers experienced in the perils of the Amazon were horrific. The book was very graphic with the descriptions of their encounters especially in the insect form. The movie as with most going to the big screen from book can't and wasn't able to capture all the details. Still I found the adaptation to the big screen enjoyable and heard people talking as they exited the movie wondering as to why this movie wasn't getting more press. I couldn't agree more as I found the movie captavating and was entranced the whole way through, not just because I read the book, but the actors and the story was engaging. The movie covered more than I imagined on how Percy's family and wife were tormented with his departures into the Amazon and the years they spent without him being a part of the family. Just glad I got to see the movie as I was agitated that it took so long to get to a local screen. This movie is worth seeing and recommend that you seek it out, shame on the theaters not showing a movie of this quality! My only negative was that I wish they would have spent more time shooting in the jungle versus the time he spent at home and on the battlefield in WW1.

Reasonably good adventure film, Hunnam is good though the film is overlong and draggy.

I give "Lost City of Z" a 6 because, in the end, I would not recommend this film to anyone except a person I did not like very much. Not that it's bad; it just isn't very entertaining. Our intrepid explorer sets out to discover the source of a river in "Amazonia." Call me crazy but traveling upriver by raft seems like a lot more work than hacking a path through the underbrush. And how exactly do you get closer to the source of a river by traveling downstream, as happens in a couple of scenes? And virtually nothing is said about how one expects to survive in the jungle for years, except that, at one point, someone shoots a wild hog. And then in the middle of it all, our intrepid explorer, an officer in the British army, goes off to fight in World War One. Well, you know, it's expected, or so one might say. But what in the world does it have to do with the actual Lost City of Z? For all that passes by on the screen, very little that seems significant actually occurs. Our explorer makes not one but several trips into the jungle. He meets "indians". He records measurements with his surveying gear. He fights in the war. His wife sees him off bravely every time he departs and presents him with yet another child upon his return. And she's there of course to see him arguing with the membership of the Royal Geographic Society over the likelihood of some indigenous people building a great city of gold in the middle of the jungle. Our explorer, you see, is the most open-minded fellow in the group. For some reason I do not normally think of British army officers from the late Victorian era when the words "open-minded" are uttered, or written, but perhaps I'm just biased. The acting is fine. The visuals are nice. But ultimately I do not believe that the movie-makers knew very much about jungles or how to survive there or what exactly made this fabled lost city interesting enough to be worth everyone's time. Worse still, the ending is a disappointment. Try this film if you dare but don't say you weren't warned.

An otherwise interesting film let down by modern hollywood's obsession with political correctness. Acting ok, cinematography ok - overall could have been a lot better. As others have said there might be an ok film in there if at least 45 minutes were cut and it didn't run overlong. A 6 if you like every possible story reflecting PC tropes, 3 otherwise.

A "3" is generous, I think. I can sum this movie up right here: Man ruins his wife's life and squashes her dreams, while chasing his own dream. It's also a lot of white men congratulating each other. Possibly the most boring movie I've ever seen. I never sleep during movies, and actually tried to do so in this one after 1.5 hours. Too effing long.

International Online Cinema Awards (INOCA)

• 4 Wins & 13 Nominations

International Cinephile Society Awards

• 1 Win & 7 Nominations

San Diego Film Critics Society Awards