First of all, this movie looked and sounded great. Amazing cinematography and good atmospheric score (yet a little loud sometimes, should've been more subtle). The performances were ok for the most part, but it seems like nobody really cared enough to be remembered. I'm not sure though if Fassbender was playing an insomniac or he was just too bored to convey an emotion.
I can't tell for sure, but I think that the adaptation itself is what ruined it for me. I didn't read the book, but at times it feels too obvious that some parts were copied directly. It may be the book's fault, but some of the characters really lacked depth. It is usually easy to distinguish characters in scripts written for the screen and characters transcended from a book (these were pretty much a set of cliches, drunk/depressed cops, revenge fueled motivations etc. This doesn't feel deep enough. You need to have deep characters in a thriller these days.
The pacing/editing was clunky. Introductory scenes were really fast and cut in a somewhat confusing way. It's like if the movie is briefly filling you in on the premise. Since the introductory scenes are a mess it's really hard to establish an attitude towards the killer in the end. Then they throw a lot of characters and subplots at you, some of which disappear and reappear very randomly making you forget they were in the movie. It's not that slow or long, but it sure feels dragged out. I first checked time around 40 min in, and it's not a good thing for me when I do that. The twist was absolutely readable around 50% into the movie. I was nowhere near being even slightly surprised.
The ending, even though looking great, still felt lame. This is a result of a kind of confusing tone of some scenes. Some of them feel like unintentional comedy (or clever intentional one?). Like the mom drowning in a car doing a face you do when you meet the neighbor you don't know to well in an elevator. It also feels like the ending was re-written in a way, since the killer had no reason to move to the lake, he had a gun and if he wanted he could've killed them in the house or drive away. Even if he had other motivation the movie still doesn't tell us what is was.
It also had some weird stuff. Like casting a very odd (and old) looking Val Kilmer and dubbing his voice in a very unnatural way (badly lip-synched too).
I can't tell for sure, but I think that the adaptation itself is what ruined it for me. I didn't read the book, but at times it feels too obvious that some parts were copied directly. It may be the book's fault, but some of the characters really lacked depth. It is usually easy to distinguish characters in scripts written for the screen and characters transcended from a book (these were pretty much a set of cliches, drunk/depressed cops, revenge fueled motivations etc. This doesn't feel deep enough. You need to have deep characters in a thriller these days.
The pacing/editing was clunky. Introductory scenes were really fast and cut in a somewhat confusing way. It's like if the movie is briefly filling you in on the premise. Since the introductory scenes are a mess it's really hard to establish an attitude towards the killer in the end. Then they throw a lot of characters and subplots at you, some of which disappear and reappear very randomly making you forget they were in the movie. It's not that slow or long, but it sure feels dragged out. I first checked time around 40 min in, and it's not a good thing for me when I do that. The twist was absolutely readable around 50% into the movie. I was nowhere near being even slightly surprised.
The ending, even though looking great, still felt lame. This is a result of a kind of confusing tone of some scenes. Some of them feel like unintentional comedy (or clever intentional one?). Like the mom drowning in a car doing a face you do when you meet the neighbor you don't know to well in an elevator. It also feels like the ending was re-written in a way, since the killer had no reason to move to the lake, he had a gun and if he wanted he could've killed them in the house or drive away. Even if he had other motivation the movie still doesn't tell us what is was.
It also had some weird stuff. Like casting a very odd (and old) looking Val Kilmer and dubbing his voice in a very unnatural way (badly lip-synched too).