Zodiac Film Review (2007) – Chasing Uncatchable Killer

(This is Zodiac film review, which is a mystery thriller film that is based on a real unsolved murder in the United States)

There’s always been a few rare murder cases where the murderer was never caught. Zodiac was one of these cases that, till now, had never had its perpetrator caught, and this film used that as its premise.

It is directed by the director of The Social Network, David Fincher, and starred plenty of famous names such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr., with Anthony Edwards, Brian Cox, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, John Carroll Lynch, Candy Clark, Dermot Mulroney, and Chloë Sevigny, Without further ado, let’s jump into the Zodiac film review below!

Premise

The Zodiac murder spree case had never been solved till today. This film looked into the beginning right to the end of a possible prime suspect and how the ones involved managed to lead the case to him. Could the truth ever be revealed to the world, even if just a little?

Zodiac Film Review

Premise

The story was mostly based on the 1986 book of the same name by Robert Graysmith. As it was based on a true story, the premise itself could be said to be more akin to detective work story rather than a true fiction. If you have known about the case, then not many of the events will surprise you. However, the film did manage to create an engaging experience for those that did not know about it at all.

What I liked is they show how each murder happened, and each was shown without much dramatisation except over some strong music soundtrack. The film tried to create an art out of this non-fictional story, and it worked pretty well so far. It managed to capture your attention by introducing characters slowly as well as following different characters’ perspectives. The way it alternated between murder scenes and detective work scenes helped to break the flow once in a while to give you some breather, as the mood was quite intense and could cause anxiety to build.

Zodiac film review mark ruffalo — The detective on the hunt…to nowhere?

Overall, it seemed that the film followed the book pretty well, and even with the belief that the true identity of the Zodiac killer might be the one and only prime suspect after all. It did not try to be impartial on it, which could be a polarising factor for certain audience.

The film did manage to create an engaging experience for those that did not know about it at all

Pacing

Pacing is pretty well maintained, but due to the long length of the film, the middle portion could feel like a drag as they focused much more on the detective work rather than the emotional scenes. You could actually feel the length of time passed, as anxiety keeps building up, but thankfully the later portion of the film has a much faster and better flow to keep you glued to the screen.

Characters

Zodiac film review jake the cartoonist — Jake as a cartoonist turned detective

Characters are the meat here and I must praise the performances of Jake Gyllenhaal and Mark Ruffalo. Their characters are acted very well and you can see the sense of helplessness, but even more than this is their tenacity to find the culprit. I don’t know how to describe it well, but both of them are able to act out a sense of calm desperation bordering on madness. It made their characters much more interesting than just normal detective and cartoonist who happened to work on the same case.

We are also shown other characters and all of their strengths and defects. None of the characters are perfect and each experience hardship along the way. It showed us the real life version of what happened in the real world back then. The sacrifices that they had to make in order to track down the murderer who, till now, was never caught. It was this desperation that drove them to publish the book in the end, but it also signified some form of helplessness when they realised they could never catch him even after all these hard work.

It also signified some form of helplessness when they realised they could never catch him even after all these hard work

Other characters are acted out pretty good too, especially the antagonist, which though hardly had any screentime, still gave a general impression of a sly and calm murderer who killed people for weird reasons. All in all, the characters in this film felt alive and as if they were all reenacting the same scenes that happened way back then.

Zodiac film review antagonist suspect — The prime suspect??

Soundtrack

Soundtrack has pretty cool music played through some murder scenes and others for some artistic and impactful moments. But it’s the quiet scenes when the characters are talking that we are shown the impactful ones.

Zodiac Film Review (2007) – Chasing Uncatchable Killer

Story

Pacing

Characters

Soundtrack

Reader Rating0 Votes0

What's good

Excellent performances from the lead roles

Other characters are equally filled with personalities and feel alive

Great pacing for an almost 3h long movie

Shows different perspectives to keep your interest till the end

Good artistic soundtrack

What's bad

The movie could feel quite draggy in the middle portion

The movie does not try to be impartial because it followed the book pretty closely

4.1

DAYUM!

A great mystery thriller that is based on a real unsolved case!

Zodiac is a movie that is watched for both knowledge as well as entertainment from the performances of the leading characters. Definitely give this one a go even if the length of the film is quite long!

[Zodiac film review score table]

Author Details

Author Details

Anthony L Tjandra

An everyday guy who is the founder of Controller Companies. He started it when he was frustrated to find that the stuff he bought had no reviews available online. Thus, this website is created with the sole purpose of reviewing stuff that he has seen, bought, used or enjoyed! Now, he is probably doing another review while you are reading this.