The Magnificent Seven Review: 5 Ups And 5 Downs

Downs:

5. The Villain Is Undernourished

There’s no debating Peter Sarsgaard’s skills as an actor, nor his ability to play nuanced villains, but he doesn’t really get to show it in big budget projects. His Hector Hammond was one of the biggest laughing stocks in King Of The Laughing Stocks Green Lantern, and in The Magnificent Seven he doesn’t fare much better.

He’s the snarling Bogue, an industrialist with a small army trying to take down the town of Rose Krick. What are his feelings about this? Motivations? Why is he the way he is? Who knows, because he’s barely in the film for much of the runtime (he’s established in the opening scene before returning for the finale) and when he is it’s just as an eccentric with no clear direction.

The Marvel movies have shown that movies about the heroes, especially ensembles, don’t necessarily need an overbearing villain, but Bogue is so undernourished and unexplored it makes Ronan the Accuser (remember him?) look like a screen icon.