Luther: The Fallen Sun

I loved the first television series of this gritty and challenging police drama. Sadly, now we have reached a nadir for this charismatic and unorthodox character. The story is so ridiculously far-fetched that it reminded me of something Mark Gatiss might have written for "Sherlock" before he watched "No Time To Die" (2021) and thought - nah! It all starts when youngster "Callum" is dragged away from his night-time cleaning job by a mysterious phone call. Next thing we know, "Luther" (Idris Elba) is at a crime scene with no sign of the boy but with a victim in her car that has been missing for ages. Enter the completely un-menacing "Robey" (Andy Serkis) and pretty soon our favourite policeman is incarcerated for a career of systematic rule-bending/breaking and this rather evil monster now proceeds to prove that evil can prevail - and on a fairly spectacular scale. This story is, frankly, preposterous and as the film lumbers along for over two ours I really struggled to remain engaged as it moved from suicide scenarios to far more brutal killings - but what, exactly, is motivating this man is anyone's guess. He appears to have acquired control over a vast network of technology and people to effect his dastardly plan but none of that even vaguely rings plausible. The last twenty minutes are just plain silly and overall, the writing is all rather poor: "They'll kill you John" - "I can live with that!" - not an hint of irony there, neither. This is a pretty shameless attempt to capitalise on a strong character made memorable by a charismatic actor and a series of solid stories. This film has thrown all of those under the snowplough.

Luther is, for my money, one of the best things to come out of the UK, in a long time. I was therefore more than a little cynical, when I spied a film adaptation of the obsessively watchable, series. To be frank, the back story is absurdly far fetched but somehow it "works". In essence, I'd describe it as a pastiche, of borrowed elements, from the series, that have been thrown together, in an inexplicable, crime mash up. Its cause is helped in no small part, by Idris Elba, whose talent outshines and out paces, this flawed tale. Elba breathes life into a story, that might not have fared so well, with a lesser actor, in the lead. In summary, the creative part of my brain enjoyed this, whilst the rational part sat back and shook its head. Yes, its utter nonsense but its really "good" nonsense, nonetheless. Give it a go....