i watched the two parts separately and recorded my thoughts after each. part 1: while it is certainly well made and is interesting, it drags quite a bit. each individual scene moves at a fine pace, but it feels like it is spinning it's wheels trying to get going. i am 2 1/2 hours in and it feels like it has only just really established itself. the opening "heist" is a great character introduction for dr. mabuse, so we really don't need another one right after that to get the plot started, have von wenk start investigating him for that rather than another basically unrelated crime. with the act structure and multiple parts, it essentially plays out like a tv miniseries (or a serial, which is undoubtedly what lang is taking the structure from). it is reminding me why i don't particularly care for serialized television, there is too much that isn't really effectively advancing the plot. if you can't tell your story in one sitting, consider simplifying your story. there are a few really fantastic sequences, particularly the poker table battle between mabuse and von wenk as well as the jailhouse interrogation of carozza. the actress playing carozza is the real stand out so far. i have been a little underwhelmed by klein-rogge, who has been good, but not great thus far. i hope that there is going to be some explanation for mabuse's abilities besides that he is basically magic. everything else is grounded in reality, so i don't want him to just have magic powers. i'm fine with the hypnotism, but he seems to sometimes be able to just magically control people and i'm not sure if the explanation is that he hypnotized them and we just didn't see it or something else. part 2: while there is more action in the second half, i found it less engaging. the payoffs were for the most part underwhelming, though i did really like the finale as a fitting end for dr. mabuse. i never really understood dr. mabuse's motivations. ostensibly, he wants to accumulate wealth and power, but most of the endeavors we see him engage in are mostly high risk, low reward schemes that don't work towards that goal. he is a bit of an agent of chaos that really is only doing this for the thrill of manipulating others to his will, but that also doesn't quite fit. i found the character to be underwhelming on the whole when he was setting up as a legendary villain. really my other other issue with the film is just the pacing and formatting, but really that is my own dislike of the miniseries/serialized format than any real flaw of the film itself. it felt like there were two many unnecessary subplots that served as little more than minor details. everything with the count and countess ultimately went nowhere, but is at least an hour of the runtime. it was fine material on its own, but it didn't fit cleanly with the main plot, to the extent there was one. there is enough good stuff here to get it a good grade, but the potential for greatness is there, but that is mostly fritz lang moreso than the source material i think. lang achieved greatness with some of his other work, so i can't bemoan the unachieved potential here too much.