Mitch Wilkinson


He was a ridiculous, poorly written character and one of the film's chief flaws.

For the entire movie, he's portrayed as nothing short of nefarious. He knowingly and falsely accuses Gates' great-grandfather of being the mastermind behind the Lincoln assassination. He coerces the museum director into going along and publicizing the diary page implicating Thomas Gates. He breaks into Patrick Gates' home, has him assaulted, and surreptitiously clones his cell phone. He starts a dangerous, high-speed car chase through the crowded streets of London. He threatens Gates' mother with a gun and threatens to murder her ex-husband. He holds everyone at gunpoint at Mount Rushmore, then, once they reach Cibola, he attacks Riley and Gates and holds Abigail at knifepoint.

Yet, in spite of all of this sociopathic behavior, we're to believe he suddenly experiences a pang of altruism and decides to sacrifice himself for the Gates clan -- despite the fact that just moments before he punched Gates in the face and stuck a knife to Abigail's throat in order to ensure his own exit and survival. Not only was his "sacrifice" unexplainably out-of-character, but did the writers really expect the audience to ignore his villainy from the first two hours and feel sympathy over his death?

Ian Howe was a far superior character and worthier adversary. Mitch was a cartoon.

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You have summed up my thoughts on this exactly.

Cake or Death?

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I second that. His character makes no sense.
Movie about hitler saving baby rhinis would make more sense that this one.

INCEPTION

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I completely agree. His character was horrible. I'm glad he died, and really wish that Ben had not offered to give him any credit for finding the City of Gold. He did absolutely nothing, found nothing, uncovered nothing. It's too bad that his death was not more horrific and visually violent - like maybe one of those boulders crushing his skull.

We don't get a chance to "Meet The Wilkinson Family", but through Mitch, I hate them a lot!

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> "...Yet, in spite of all of this sociopathic behavior, we're to believe he suddenly experiences a pang of altruism and decides to sacrifice himself for the Gates clan -- despite the fact that just moments before he punched Gates in the face and stuck a knife to Abigail's throat in order to ensure his own exit and survival." <

Yup. We're supposed to believe exactly that. Believe it, and like it, and clamor for more.

What, you want the filmmakers to WORK for the audience? Do another rewrite -- good Lord, maybe even two -- to give their characters internally consistency? Trim precious car chase footage to give a top actor like Ed Harris some character development scenes that he would have made sing? Aim for anything deeper than the 13 to 18 boy demographic?

Bruckheimer. Disney. 'Nuff said.

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LOL, I feel the exact same way!!! Total maniac through the entire search, then with 5 minutes left in the film he's like "Remember meeeeee!" or something to that effect. Buddy, you almost killed every person in the group -- how could they forget you!?

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Well, didn't something happen with the fight, so that Gates ended up in the door, and Mitch ended up still on the crank where he was with Gates? 1 person wasn't strong enough to open it. Mitch was dead; he had no choice. There was no way for him to get through the door. If he hadn't stayed, he wouldn't have gotten credit for the discovery AND he would have died. Since he stayed, he at least got credit. It wasn't really a sacrifice - he had no choice.

Correct me if I'm wrong; I was kinda tired at that point.

-ClintJCL
http://clintjcl.wordpress.com/category/reviews/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl

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Agreed completely with OP. I just saw the movie and that last part completely killed the whole ending. It felt too convenient an ending, and so ridiculously out of character for him to do that. Made the whole thing feel like a bad set up.

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Yeah, it was a cheap out, unfortunately, and one of those false "feel-good" wrap-ups that Disney has as part of its habitual formula.

It's a pity, because the film overall was pretty good up till then.



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

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I guess Disney didn't want to kill any major character in case there was a third movie.. I agree with you there's no way he would have sacrificed himself after all that..

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His grandfather's name was written on the piece of paper in the same timeframe of Lincoln's murder and not by Wilkinson. He could have been involved so I don't know why the guy apologised for implicating him falsely. The whole last half of the film seems to have been rushed so his great grandfather was cleared and the bad guy was out of the way and everything was back to normal suddenly (including no one getting any treasure again). His grandfather was also cleared because a treasure was found? If only life was so simple. Abigail was a B word in this movie at the beginning (taking the house of her boyfriend and keeping his belongings like he owed you for turning up). She wouldn't have been missed by me and wasn't redeemed during the contrived assisting in finding a treasure again.

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