Idris Elba as Luther in ‘Luther: The Fallen Son’ | photo credit: netflix
It’s been four years since his complicated relationship with Alice Morgan brought John Luthor to his knees and got him arrested. But poor John, once again, can’t stop grieving or sulking because he has yet another psychopath, surely the most terrifying he’s ever encountered.
To jog your memory, here’s a quick recap of season five: DCI John Luther (Idris Elba), while pursuing a case, crosses paths with Rick Prick gangster George Cornelius (Patrick Malahide), who believes Luthor kidnaps her son. Alice (Ruth Wilson), who was written off as dead, returns and kills Cornelius’ son, and things go wrong. Cornelius kidnaps Alice and Luther’s other close friends… and kills one of them (poor Benny). Eventually, Luthor makes a deal with Cornelius and saves his friends. But this backfires on Alice who unsuccessfully attempts to shoot Cornelius, kills DS Catherine Holliday (Wunmi Mosaku) and eventually falls to her death from a building under construction after a duel with Luther. Detective Superintendent Martin Schenk (Dermott Crowley) arrives with his team to arrest Luther, thanks to Cornelius’ plan to frame him.
Luther: The Fallen Son There is a film continuation of the BBC series, and it begins after Luthor has been sent to prison. However, to take the story forward, the makers have made a slight change in things. We are told that Luther was not arrested by Schenk at the construction site, but rather was arrested while pursuing a new case: the kidnapping of a young man named Callum Aldrich. It’s definitely off to a bumpy start as the series finale left us with quite the evocative picture of Luthor being handcuffed. Still, a new case was definitely needed and the series didn’t leave enough threads to film.
Luther: The Fallen Son (English)
director: Jamie Payne
mold: Idris Elba, Andy Serkis, Cynthia Erivo, Dermot Crowley
Order: 129 minutes
Story: Disgraced detective John Luthor is forced to break out of prison and out of the clutches of law enforcement in order to capture a new, most dangerous serial killer ever
The new case focuses on a serial killer, David Robey (Andy Serkis). David has kidnapped people over the years, hiding them in secret locations or storing their bodies after killing them. In the present day, he decides to put on a show for the loved ones of these victims; They arrive at a specific spot where the bodies of the victims hang from the ceiling before setting them on fire.
One of the dead was Callum Aldrich, whom Luthor had been following. Luthor is confronted by the victim’s loved one for not keeping the promise (Luthor learned not from season four’s Megan Cantor). And with David taunting Luther, he plans to escape from prison. The fight choreography is really excellent in this scene. On the investigation front, it’s all clear and expected – there’s a mole inside the station, Schenk is called in for help, and new DCI, Odette Raine (Cynthia Erivo), loathes Luthor and is more concerned with him than the killer. more concerned about.
Meanwhile, the identity of the serial killer is revealed early on, making it more of a cat-and-mouse game than a whodunit; An idea that was just as influential in the show as it is in the film. Andy Serkis’s David Robey uses their ugliest secrets to blackmail people and take their jobs. As it turns out, he uses this to put on a show inside the Red Room, for dark net users to watch live-streaming of horrific violent crimes.
Robbie Luthor also takes the cake with the highest body count as the villain. However, the story does him no good as he turns out to be a handsome villain. We see that something unfortunate happened to his wife, who on the other hand says that he was a good person. Disappointingly this thread is primarily used instead of digging further into your psyche.
Luthor is a series known for playing with format, being able to tell a story over two episodes (the fourth season) or six (the first season). In the fallen sun, the producers are trying to see if they can tell it in the same amount of time that two episodes take, but as a movie it’s far from all the cushioning that television provides. It should have an engaging narrative and a tight screenplay, supporting Luthor’s character, and yet maintaining his own uniqueness.
The option of making a sequel film seems tempting, especially considering that the world Luther is nothing short of surprising. The film is decidedly bigger thanks to the higher budget, and Idris Elba’s Luther needed to come out of the small screen. However, the story still feels like an episode of the show. Yes, Luthor is still Luthor, and we see great action scenes and nuggets of moments that remind us why we cheered for him in the first place.
But there are many mistakes in its two-hour runtime. Plus, some very predictable twists make this a routine rogue cop action and a rudimentary sequel. At one point, when the characters go up a snowy mountain, you wish they wouldn’t get on the ski jets and chase each other down.
All that said, Elba is a beast as Luthor and one can’t wait to see where he takes this character next; Once again he proved that he doesn’t need to be James Bond. That’s John Luther.
Luther: The Fallen Son is currently streaming on Netflix