Finch Review: 6 Ups & 4 Downs
4. The FANTASTIC Cinematography & Visual Effects
Though its budget hasn't been publicly disclosed yet, it's clear that Universal spent a pretty penny on this movie, which is an absolute looker across the board.
For starters, cinematographer Jo Willems does a fantastic job capturing the epic sweep of the vast vistas Finch drives his RV across.
With most of the film taking place during the day - a rarity for the genre - almost the entire movie is refreshingly bright and picturesque despite its subject matter.
The sharp lensing works in perfect concert with the outstanding visual effects, which both expand the natural landscapes to make the world look more dilapidated, and are particularly vital in bringing Jeff to life.
The robot VFX are staggeringly photo-real for the most part, the lighting matched perfectly in practically every scene and lacking the usual "tells" of an artificial creation.
It helps immeasurably that actor Caleb Landry Jones was on set for the entire shoot to provide performance capture for Jeff, lending an added physical dimension to the robot.
While so many post-apocalyptic movies look so obviously shot on a soundstage, Finch's desolate world feels uncommonly tactile, while the central human-robot bond is also necessarily warm.