Leon looks too light

Young Natalie Portman is fantastic in Leon. Jean Reno also seems to be a good match to the character he plays, Leon, the assassin. However, Leon looks too light to me. The movie seems a little too up-tempo. This is kind of odd thing to say, because there really isn't any happy story in the movie. Also so many people are killed including the main character, Leon.

When I watch Leon, I think about Victor whom Jean Reno plays in Nikita, and he is also an assassin; dark and mysterious character. Though the character only shows in the very last part of the film, the character makes a pretty strong impression. Because of this, I cannot help but to compare Leon to Victor in Nikita (In my opinion, this is one of the best spy movies ever. The movie seems to get everything right).

Cinematography. This is probably one of things, that Leon does not get it right. Leon, the movie, literally looks light, that is to say, all scenes are very bright. I just do not think that the movie picks a good lightening. Nor does it pick right weather. The movie is filmed in New York, so it could have filmed under the rain. I could have filmed under the show in winter. I have not watched Nikita in a while, and I don't remember a lot of details; I need to watch the movie to see exactly what kind of weather the movie picks, but I do not think that Nikita tries to make Paris look sunny and bright and it is the happiest place on earth. Cinematography and the story match, as they are supposed to.

Apparently, it is fashionable in US to ridicule France, anything to do with France and French people today, but I have hard time relating to that fashion, trend or whatever you want to call, when I compare two similar movies, American one and French one like Leon and Nikita.