Focus Review: 8 Reasons Will Smith's New Movie Is A Con

6. Sloppy Filmmaking Dressed Up In An Attractive Visual Style

With its smooth camera movements, sharp costume design and grand backdrops, Focus clearly wants to look like a suave, meticulously perfect film. But go beyond the attractive leads and locales and, in terms of actual filmmaking, the film is simple and, at its worst, rather slapdash. There are countless continuity snafu's that are oddly glaring, to the point they should be noticeable even on an absent-minded watch; Margot Robbie rests a hand on her face, but in the next shot she's holding a cup, or Will Smith's mouth moves when he's out of focus, yet no words come out. Their regularity betrays this as simple editing cover-ups and hints at a sloppier, poorly planned approach to the whole production. The film certainly has a glossy sheen, but it cost $100 million - of course basic aesthetic elements will be professionally realised (heck, Fifty Shades Of Grey had enough money poured into it to not look like the softcore porno it really is). To make a film that looks well made doesn't correlate with how much a studio throws into it. The film tries to dress itself up with this slick veneer, but the cracks reveal a rather basic construction.