Top_Dawg_Critic Review of Vesper

Vesper (2022)

Visually stunning, but lacks the narrative to effectively utilize its 114 min runtime.

[6/10 · 1 October 2022]

For a low budget indie film, the sets and visuals are really impressive, as was the cinematography and score. It's just too bad the long and slowly paced runtime felt dull, tedious and underwhelming. More substance was needed to expand on many of the visuals, at least the important ones. If only half the effort that went into the stunning visuals and details in every scene went into the screenplay, this could've been a cult classic sci-fi. Instead, it's more of a low-fi adventure spectacle, where the viewer is left clueless - for one example, why the wandering pilgrims hide their faces, collect scrap, or even built a tower in the middle of nowhere. It isn't good enough to have a pretty film with so little substantiated commentary as to the "why". I was left very unsatisfied and wanted much more. Even for the little suspense it did have, it all could've been trimmed down to a perfect little short sci-fi film. Sadly, it's a win in the visual department but a loss in the storytelling, and that's too bad considering even the performances were compelling and convincing.