12 Years a Slave

*This post has spoilers

To be honest I didn't very much enjoy this movie as much as I thought I would. Recently I feel that I've been surrounded by so many movies about slavery that the plots of these movies always end up feeling similar. But maybe it's not even that. With this film I'll start with the first thing I knew about it, the title. The title gives away everything. "12 Years" tells you that this only lasts 12 Years, and implies that the main character will return home after those twelve years. It also tells you that this man was previously a free man, hence the reason why the movie doesn't end when he is age 12. The only thing I was hoping for was that during these twelve years something would happen to this man, something significant that would change his whole life, that he would discover something hidden deep inside of him and he would reach some awakening, like another movie that just came out, Gravity. The film became this pool for great actors to have very emotional scenes, which is why I think it is getting so much praise and love from viewers. The acting was very good, and some of my favourite actors gave amazing performances like Benedict Cumberbatch. But having amazing acting doesn't constitute being a good film to me if the story feels dull.