What a shocker. Spike Lee’s overpraised “Da 5 Bloods” is getting mediocre audience scores (62% on Rotten Tomatoes). Why am I not surprised?
Lee’s disoriented collage of a film was getting great reviews because it had the great fortune of being released right in the midst of paralleling social events, this made it too much of a sweet deal for critics to resist and virtue signal. It’s a bit disingenuous, but I don’t even think the critics praising this film even realize it. Maybe they have just so much empathy at the moment, due to the social unrest, that the notion of a good movie and a bad movie is being blurred.
“Da 5 Bloods” is a gigantic tonal collage with no cohesion to its narrative. It also clocks in at a deranged 154-minute runtime. It takes more than 90 minutes for Lee to set up his story and characters before we are finally thrust into the jungles of Vietnam and our 4 Bloods are on their treasure hunt. What it, sadly, proves, however, is a decline in storytelling skills on the part of Lee, a lack of editing and focus as well. Spike’s message might be in the right place with this film, but the end result is a confusing collage of politics, entertainment, and ego. The right timing might be kind to “Da 5 Bloods,” but time won’t be.
I’ve read some reviews that claim this is one of Spike Lee’s best movies? What!? “Da 5 Bloods” doesn’t come close to the hallucinatory brilliance of “Do the Right Thing,” “25th Hour,” and “Malcolm X.” Hell, it’s not even close to the movie that other Lee greats such as “Summer of Sam,” “Bamboozled” and “Jungle Fever” were.