It's nowhere near as bad as people are saying. However, it is not a 'great' film and their are a number of problems. The acting is good and it is entertaining overall. I actually think the film will work better on the small screen rather than the big screen.
Just came back from this, I don't think it was that bad after all. Lowering expectations does help immensely though...really is this year's Prometheus, IMO on the whole it's solid but looking closer there are definitely flaws. Really liked a lot of the slower moments in the first half of the film, some really great work.
eg. Will suddenly going into megalomaniac mode
Also, Evelyn's journey from the makeshift lab to Brightwood with Will in her ear - reminds me a lot of PoI and Root
Script changes if any (from Paglen's Black List-ed draft) were for the worse though I thought. Things being purposefully more spelt out here really stuck out.
Especially RIFT...the bar scene between Max and Bree. Also maybe it would have been a bit better to have the shooting to happen like in the script during the talk itself...
Rebecca Hall though, I liked her in this, managing to carry most of the film. Depp too wasn't too bad either. Not sure on Freeman and Murphy...just there for the paycheck? Honourable mention to Clifton Collins Jr. (i.e. that cool guy from Pacific Rim).
Best bit for me was probably the score, works incredibly well with what's going in, and purposefully unsettling. Shame end credits suite wasn't on the album.
Not a bad effort from all. I think people will probably like it more when this hits TV/home media/cable, as one of those late-night films on Sky Movies or something. Probably tried too hard to be both thought-provoking and a blockbuster a-la Inception.
P.S. Seems like Syncopy completely scrubbed out all their involvement besides the Nolans' exec producer credit. The first two trailers did have "A Straight Up Films/Syncopy Production" but now no mention of Syncopy in all marketing and nothing in the credits (didn't stay till the very end so Syncopy logo could have popped up like TDK)
DoubleD wrote:So I've only skimmed over the reviews, and despite the overwhelming negative reaction, I still plan on seeing this.
But I do have a curious question. I haven't seen anyone mention seeing it in IMAX. I'm just curious about that aspect of the film.
I saw it in IMAX
Forgo it unless your normal cinemas are garbage. It was hardly worth the cost. None of the imagery demands it, nor do any of the 'set pieces'. I honestly can't figure out why it was released in IMAX at all.
DoubleD wrote:So I've only skimmed over the reviews, and despite the overwhelming negative reaction, I still plan on seeing this.
But I do have a curious question. I haven't seen anyone mention seeing it in IMAX. I'm just curious about that aspect of the film.
I saw it in IMAX
Forgo it unless your normal cinemas are garbage. It was hardly worth the cost. None of the imagery demands it, nor do any of the 'set pieces'. I honestly can't figure out why it was released in IMAX at all.
Well this wasn't all that bad. I enjoyed it for the most part up until the third act, which with a really good rewrite, could have made the film that much better. Hall really carried the film, and Paul Bettany's performance really stood out. Murphy seemed to be in this for Wally, or maybe the paycheck.
Also didn't help that they showed you the ending at the beginning.
DoubleD wrote:Well this wasn't all that bad. I enjoyed it for the most part up until the third act, which with a really good rewrite, could have made the film that much better. Hall really carried the film, and Paul Bettany's performance really stood out. Murphy seemed to be in this for Wally, or maybe the paycheck.
Also didn't help that they showed you the ending at the beginning.
6.5/10 feels fair.
I think that the film was quite good, especially the ending.
The ending shown at the beginning hinted where the story could go, but it made us expect where the story would go, and also if we saw trailers, we could expect that it would go that way (I try not to spoil).
EDIT: But it maybe doesn't go that way, nor from we could expect from the beginning of the film, or the trailer, or as it could go.
I think that people expected some kind of Matrix film with lot of action, based on trailers, but it really is not action film. Maybe the trailer did not do the film any justice, made people think it already told the story, made the story predictable. Maybe trailer should not have say anything, similar to Her film, which did not say much...
For me, it was better than other praised films like American Hustle (which I also liked mostly, but expected it would better since I saw the first trailer)...
