One word I never expected to use for this movie prior to watching it was 'dreadful'! It truly is that bad.
I've watched the four seasons 2-3 times each and have been engrossed in the whole machinations of this underbelly of Neapolitan society. Ciro's arc was easily one of the most engrossing as the ambitious gangster saw his rise and fall due to hubris and a certain naivety. Yet here his role has been downgraded to some brooding teenager. If he's seeking redemption, he's not doing it so well.
The film starts off with possibly the most ridiculous comeback since Dallas. I thought that this was going to be a prequel of sorts, but no, and if you've watched the series already then you'll half guess the ending very quickly.
The whole story doesn't work. The little Napoli in Riga seemed to be a bit clumsy, with our 'hero' caught in the middle of a local turf war, and he is some kind of "Fistful of Dollars" in-betweener. It doesn't work. In parallel is the backstory part to Ciro which is a bit mixed, but I found it hard to get invested in it.
Really this is a very poor spin-off to the show. Few spin-offs ever are any good, and this really proves the point.
Very disappointing. With this movie they had such a great opportunity to let Ciro's character develop outwith of the bubble in Naples, yet they just put together a cheap knock-off episode instead.
Seriously, this is very much best avoided. I'll now wait for season 5 to come.
