Django 8/10
Editing is the most obvious problem and there's not much to say about it other than that it's sloppy at times.
Pacing is another. The movie never gets boring but at times I wondered how or why QT felt some scenes just HAD to be there or that they HAD to be that long. Unless you've already fallen completely in love with the chemistry between Waltz and Foxx (and I really didn't but didn't dislike it either) you'd possibly feel that the movie drags a little with the riding sequences, the team-montages, hero-montages and so on. Most of them establish Django as a legend without telling you why and in an overused manner. Even after all the legendizing you're still not sure about the specialness of the guy at the center. So not only are some scenes somewhat pointless or not completely necessary but they're so because of lack of justification by Django's character, because he wasn't really that scary. I mean he had his badass moments, he was intimidating in some scenes, but not even on the background of so many cowardly black folk did he really feel worthy of being such a legend beyond you knowing that he has to be just because the script says so. So yeah, that's two things.
I don't understand the need for modern music in this movie so that definitely felt jarring, especially the second time. Not only did it not elevate the movie but it kind of lowered it and not only that but it had Django VO the second time which was placed awkwardly over an otherwise perfectly made shootout scene.
After Shultz's and Candy's deaths and after that shootout there's not much greatness at all. Yes it would've inevitably lead to whatever it lead to but that doesn't help. Shultz's and Candy's deaths were great and surprising but when you do something like that so early on the audience expects that to be the mark for something very creative (or at least QT himself trained/spoiled us so) that's about to happen and there was none of that. Except maybe for the homo-reveal of that nut-loving guy which was great but that can't compensate for the lack of Leo and Waltz. You're left alone with a legendized mass murderer slash Zorro and a bad QT cameo (actually this is the first time I have a problem with a QT cameo since everywhere else he felt like he was a part of the movie and here he for some reason decided to cripple himself with bad australian accent and... just not being specific with anything other than that he's QT. It takes you out of the movie, he could've at least told a joke so he would blend in, unlike here. His first cameo in the KKK raider gang was way better and really worked. Anyway, you're left with the inevitability of... whatever happened... to happen. And so it did. Then... yeah.
I'm not really sure, I probably need to read up on whatever reviewers/analysts have said so far but I think the ending doesn't mean anything at all other than what it literally showed us. After IB you expect at least something. Actually I did notice a hint of 'pimpness' about Django that might mean something but it's too insufficient to call that 'commentary'. Not only that but that horse dance at the end was like that Depp dance from Alice.
Realizing how much was cut from the script makes me wonder even more how or why there are so much legendizing scenes and shots in the movie. http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/what-was ... ained.html
Seriously, remove the pretty much useless montages and put some of that character contextualization in and you got a better movie. Or even two movies like KB if he took all the poise out and replaced it with real coolness (and I already know QT has wrote a book then tried to reduce it to a script because that's what he usually does).
Compared to pretty much any other QT movie where I can hardly say that there's ANYTHING obsolete or unnecessary this one seems pretty low in that regard. It almost gets to "Black Dynamite" level of overused legendizing.
And yeah the whole rhythm is off too.
Pacing is another. The movie never gets boring but at times I wondered how or why QT felt some scenes just HAD to be there or that they HAD to be that long. Unless you've already fallen completely in love with the chemistry between Waltz and Foxx (and I really didn't but didn't dislike it either) you'd possibly feel that the movie drags a little with the riding sequences, the team-montages, hero-montages and so on. Most of them establish Django as a legend without telling you why and in an overused manner. Even after all the legendizing you're still not sure about the specialness of the guy at the center. So not only are some scenes somewhat pointless or not completely necessary but they're so because of lack of justification by Django's character, because he wasn't really that scary. I mean he had his badass moments, he was intimidating in some scenes, but not even on the background of so many cowardly black folk did he really feel worthy of being such a legend beyond you knowing that he has to be just because the script says so. So yeah, that's two things.
I don't understand the need for modern music in this movie so that definitely felt jarring, especially the second time. Not only did it not elevate the movie but it kind of lowered it and not only that but it had Django VO the second time which was placed awkwardly over an otherwise perfectly made shootout scene.
After Shultz's and Candy's deaths and after that shootout there's not much greatness at all. Yes it would've inevitably lead to whatever it lead to but that doesn't help. Shultz's and Candy's deaths were great and surprising but when you do something like that so early on the audience expects that to be the mark for something very creative (or at least QT himself trained/spoiled us so) that's about to happen and there was none of that. Except maybe for the homo-reveal of that nut-loving guy which was great but that can't compensate for the lack of Leo and Waltz. You're left alone with a legendized mass murderer slash Zorro and a bad QT cameo (actually this is the first time I have a problem with a QT cameo since everywhere else he felt like he was a part of the movie and here he for some reason decided to cripple himself with bad australian accent and... just not being specific with anything other than that he's QT. It takes you out of the movie, he could've at least told a joke so he would blend in, unlike here. His first cameo in the KKK raider gang was way better and really worked. Anyway, you're left with the inevitability of... whatever happened... to happen. And so it did. Then... yeah.
I'm not really sure, I probably need to read up on whatever reviewers/analysts have said so far but I think the ending doesn't mean anything at all other than what it literally showed us. After IB you expect at least something. Actually I did notice a hint of 'pimpness' about Django that might mean something but it's too insufficient to call that 'commentary'. Not only that but that horse dance at the end was like that Depp dance from Alice.
Realizing how much was cut from the script makes me wonder even more how or why there are so much legendizing scenes and shots in the movie. http://www.vulture.com/2013/01/what-was ... ained.html
Seriously, remove the pretty much useless montages and put some of that character contextualization in and you got a better movie. Or even two movies like KB if he took all the poise out and replaced it with real coolness (and I already know QT has wrote a book then tried to reduce it to a script because that's what he usually does).
Compared to pretty much any other QT movie where I can hardly say that there's ANYTHING obsolete or unnecessary this one seems pretty low in that regard. It almost gets to "Black Dynamite" level of overused legendizing.
And yeah the whole rhythm is off too.
