3.5/5
Written by Luke Barnes
Summary
This film serves as a prequel to the beloved gangster TV series The Sopranos showing Tony’s, here played by Michael Gandolfini, younger years.
I enjoyed this film, but it was not perfect. Firstly do not watch this film if you have not seen the series beforehand. It is not easily understandable if you haven’t seen the series, you won’t understand various elements of the plot. However, if you are a fan of the show you will find a lot to enjoy here from Christopher’s, Michael Imperioli, ghostly narration of things to come to the show’s opening credits music playing as the film ends. One thing I will note is though I enjoyed how this film paid off the series there were a number of inconsistencies that soured my enjoyment somewhat.
The trailers for this film have lied to you, for rather obvious reasons, as this film is not really about Tony Soprano and rather instead about Dickie Moltisanti, Alessandro Nivola. We see Tony and his family appear but they are side characters at best. I thought the focus on Dickie helped keep the film feeling fresh and I enjoyed his story for the most part. The race war aspects I thought were needless as they do not pay off in the show in any way and feel instead like an unnecessary attempt to be political. I think it would have made more sense to focus on in fighting amongst the family with Dickie having to try and fight off assassination attempts from various members after his early in the film secret is slowly revealed.
Overall, it is a pleasant return to that world, was it needed? No not really but it could have been worse. More good than bad.
Pros.
Further exploring the world
Good tension
Solid drama and action
The theme song playing at the end
Cons.
It is not really about Tony
The race war storyline doesn’t feel needed
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Another Millennial Reviewer 