I just saw Luther: The Fallen Sun -- the continuation of Idris Elba's Luther TV series, in a 2+ hour movie on Netflix, and thought it was excellent, in all sorts of ways, for all kinds of reasons. In fact, minute for minute, I thought it was better than any of the many series we've seen of Luther since it came on the screen in 2010.
[I'll warn you here of spoilers, though you won't find too many here, other than what you see in the blurbs and the trailers.]
So, Luther's in prison, not because he was framed, but because of the corners he illegally cut -- what he "had to do" -- to get the criminals in the past. His adversary is a brilliant sicko, Robey (played by Andy Serkis), who is adept on the Internet and in torturing and leaving his victims hanging, literally. One of his victims is a young man, and Luther was on the case but unable to get Robey before Luther was incarcerated. Fortunately for Luther, the storyline, and the ultimate resolution of this movie, DCI Raine, who is currently investigating Robey without much success, suffers her daughter being kidnapped by Robey. This is fortunate for the story, because it obliges Raine, who starts out being adamant about not enlisting Luther, and keeping him in prison, to instead welcome him in the frantic hunt.
As most of you no doubt know, Idris Elba was at at one point being considered to play James Bond, but recently actors his age were ruled out of that running. First of all, Elba looks young enough to me. More important, he's an outstanding one-of-a-kind actor who played and defined the indelibly memorable Stringer Bell in The Wire and continues to do the same in Luther. He would have done the same for Bond. I mention this because the Luther is this story has Bondian aspects, especially in snow and ice-water action near the end of the movie. The Luther in the TV series rarely if ever made it out of London, if I remember correctly. The Luther in this movie is now both literally as well as figuratively a man of the world.
But apropos both Bond and previous Luthers, I did miss any love interest (such as Indira Varma's Zoe Luther) or even the partially erotic spark (with Ruth Wilson's Alice Morgan) in this Luther movie. Maybe that's because two hours is a little too short for such relationships to really start, let alone play out, when there such a demonic psycho to be caught. But that absence is yet another good reason to make another Luther movie.
See also Luther 5.1: Back in Fine, Depraved Form ... Luther 5.2: "A Chocolate Digestive" ... Luther 5.3: Bitter Fruit ... Luther 5.4: Lethal Love
And see also Luther: Between the Wire and the Shield ... Luther 3.1: Into the Blender ... Luther 3.2: Success ... Luther 3.3: The Perils of Being an Enemy ... Luther 3.4: Go Ask Alice
