The Great Gatsby Movie Review
Pretty but not great.
The day after I saw this film a friend asked me what I thought and I replied “Kind of pretty but not a lot else” at which point she said “That’s too bad. I love Baz Luhrmann.” This struck me as odd as I had never heard of this guy before seeing about 800,000 The Making of the Great Gatsby shorts Regal Cinima liked to shove onto the screen prior to showing the actual trailers over the last several months. Could it be he was some icon of film making that my low brow taste in movies caused me to miss, like an Austrailian Lars von Trier? A quick look at his filmography assured me that I had not missed much, although it explained why my female friend was a fan of his. Basically he makes great visual chick movies like Moulin Rouge! and Strictly Ballroom. I can honestly say I have never seen any of his other films and am not going to rush out to find them.
This film has fallen victim to it’s own marketing. I have seen the same trailer for it before every movie for the last six months. This translates into a lot of times. The trailer shows all kinds of action, with explosive WWI scenes, a huge sailing boat, guys beating up other guys, Gatsby walking in out of the rain looking like he’s ready to kick 8 kinds of ass, and above all a cool yellow car tearing ass through New York city. The car was there and played it’s part, but for the most part every other really cool exciting scene had little to nothing to do with the actual movie. Most of them were flashbacks or parts of sub plots. I spent most of the movie willing something exciting to happen.
I have never read the Great Gatsby. My high school was in most ways sub par, unless you think having a state championship surf team is remotely significant. I don’t see this as inhibiting my ability to review this film as all movies need to be able to stand on its own run time with no prerequisites. However my best friend is a huge fan of the book and filled me in on a lot of stuff. It’s basically a story about decadence and privileged in the 20’s. The main characters sole motivation for injecting himself into that society was to win over vain, superficial socialite Daisy. She is supposed to be everything one could despise in that society, epitomizing what some see as the class struggle depicted in the book.
The parts of the movie that bugged the hell out of me ironically turned out to be the parts that it looks like Baz Lurhmann opted to change or not bother to portray. Instead of showing Daisy to be a vain golddigger he presents her as a kind, gentle spirit with a load of compassion and depth. In addition to illustrating the danger of directors falling in love with their lead characters it also makes her final decisions and actions in the last 20 minutes so at odds with her character that I kept looking for body snatcher pods in the greenery. The disparity was jarring and off putting. If you spend most of a movie establishing a character you can’t have her pull a U turn without any kind of motivation. There was also a tertiary attempt at showing the difference between the lavish and tasteless decadence of the upper classes and the struggling working class, but it was so glossed over that you could walk away with the feeling that there was no consequence to letting the proletariat eat cake. The narrator, while starting off as a main character himself, turns into the physical manifestation of deus ex machina and ends up having the personality of the background scenery. Gatsby himself is well portrayed by Leonardo di Caprio, but you don’t meet him for the first 40 minutes of the film and most of the time he seems so over the top you have a hard time identifying with him.
Also, ultimately this story is a total bummer. My friend tells me at least that part is true to the book but that doesn’t make it easier to absorb. A sad ending is great when it is well portrayed (if you want to see an amazing sad story watch the Deer Hunter) but at the end of a film that seems to want to have all the depth of a kiddie pool it feels out of place. It’s like Baz suddenly realized his movie was more glitz than content and cranked in a last minute deep ending. The parts don’t all seem to match (yes, I know this is the true ending from the book. I just call them like I see them, and I’m willing to bet the book had a lot more depth throughout).
By the way, is it fair to be truly annoyed that IMDB doesn’t even list F. Scott Fitzgerald as a writer in the main credits? For shame.
Before I get into the story I’d like to mentions something about the visuals. In that making of video I have seen about 100 times Baz talks about wanting to keep the aesthetic of the 20’s. In order to do so he uses extensive CGI and it shows, although not in a good way. Huge swaths of the film look like any of the daylight scenes of Coruscant from Star Wars Episode II or III. It just looks cartoonish and unreal. A certain amount of unreality is acceptable in science fiction but in a period piece like this one it just feels wrong. Also the effort put in to justify shooting this in 3D was considerable and for the most part wasted. I live for the day Hollywood realizes that 3D is a massive waste of time and money.
The story. Nick Carraway (Tobey McGuire-Spider Man and not a whole lot else. Spider-man image courtesy of the Marvel Comic T Shirt category) starts off in a mental institution recounting the events that lead him here (this, by the way, is another plot device that Baz created that does not exist in the book and it really bugged. Don’t mess with the classics IMO). This thin premise allows him to do a voice over narration detailing his life in West Egg, a Long Island community. He has a cottage next to the biggest mansion in the world or so. He connects with his old Yale classmate Tom Buchannon (Joel Edgerton-Warrior, the Thing, Revenge of the Sith), to whom he seems to have no loyalty. Tom is married to Nicks cousin Daisy (Carey Mulligan-Drive, an Education, Pride and Prejudice), a hauntingly beautiful socialite. They all have tea together with Daisy’s freakishly tall friend Jordan Baker (Elizabeth Debicki-A Few Best Men) where Nick is told about Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire who throws lavish parties in the very mansion Nick lives next to.
Nick eventually meets Gatsby (Leonardo di Caprio-Inception, Titanic, Shutter Island), who recruits him into helping set up a meeting between Daisy and he. He knew Daisy before the war and has been enamored of him ever since but for some mysterious reason she married Tom. Meanwhile Tom is having an affair with Myrtle (Isla Fisher-Rango, Rise of the Guardians, Home and Away), the wife of lower class auto mechanic George (Jason Clarke-Zero Dark Thirty, Lawless, Death Race). Gatsby finally gets his meeting with Daisy, and starts to woo her. At that point the story is supposed to be about Daisy’s conflict between her rich husband and rich boyfriend, but honestly it just seemed like she was all one way and then jumped ship with no thought whatsoever.
The stars.
I have to give Baz credit for ambition, and for attempting to tell a story that does not fit in the normal Hollywood demographic. Two stars. Visually stunning at parts, and the attention to detail and costuming was amazing. One star. Leonardo did his usual great job. When exactly did I become a fan of his? I used to hate the guy. One star. Joel Edgerton also did a very fine job. One star. Aside from the cartoon like CGI the camera work and editing were impressive, with a lot of cool shots that go beyond the pale. One star. The movie ran a massive 143 minutes but managed to not feel like it, so great editing and pacing. One star. Carey Mulligan has the face that should inspire great paintings and sculptures, and Elizabeth Debicki is pretty damned hot as well. One star. Total: eight stars.
The black holes.
The movie really failed to latch on to any of the available themes from the book, and left me wondering “Why did all that happen exactly?”. One black hole. The insane asylum gag was hackneyed and cliche. For that matter I had a hard time taking anything Tobey McGuire did seriously. One black hole. The Daisy character was grossly underdeveloped, and what was presented of her was at odds with the character she was supposed to play. She bounced back and forth like a Ping Pong ball and had about as much volition. One black hole. There were a lot of sub plots that I’m sure are huge in the book but in here they needed to be explored a little more. Also a general lack of character motivation. One black hole. I have said before I rarely pay attention to a sound track and it has to be really bad or really good for me to even notice, and in this case it was really bad. A sound track should help you with the immersion, reinforcing the visuals and helping to set the tone. Having a film set in the 20’s but have songs by Jay-Z and Beyonce is completely wrong. It’s like watching Col. Kurtz get killed at the end of Apocalypse Now and have Barbie Girl by Aqua playing in the background (except that might have some LOL points that this film lacks). One black hole. Total: five black holes.
A grand total of three stars. Meh. Worth seeing if you are a huge Leonardo fan or just like watching rich people party. If you do want to see it be sure to do so on a big screen as the visual are nice. Date movie? Absolutely, 100% yes. The costumes, period, and romance will definitely hold your date’s interest, and if she has ever considered not going out with you because you are not rich this film will guilt the hell out of her. As an illustration of how women can be painfully shallow and bring about the destruction of otherwise decent film this film should be required viewing for all single women (not that I’m bitter). Bathroom break? At 143 minutes you are going to need something. Honestly any of the party scenes are pretty repetitive and one could be missed easily, but they are all in the first half of the film. The actual romance scenes between Gatsby and Daisy don’t do a whole lot so go then (unless you are on a date. If so hold it and use that chance to hold her hand or something).
Thanks for reading. I plan to see Peeples tonight. It looks awful but I have been enjoying a lot of decent films lately so eventually I guess I have to pay the piper. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. If you have comments on this film or my review please post them here. Any off topic questions or suggestions can be emailed to [email protected]. Talk to you soon.
Dave
Iron Man 3 Review
Brought to you by Audi, Sun Microsytems, and Oracle.
I know the new trend is to inject products into media in order to offset the fact that no one bothers to watch commercials anymore, but the product placement for these companies in this movie is pretty rampant. Given the fact that this film is destined to probably make a billion dollars from ticket sales it strikes me as a little on the greedy side and honestly denigrates the quality of this film.
That aside, I tremendously enjoyed this film last night. Granted I am a huge comic book movie, Iron Man, and Marvel fan, which tends to make me more forgiving of film elements that are less than optimal. There were parts of this film that danced dangerously close to the edge of the suck cliff and were I less well disposed towards the franchise I might have happily pushed it over (or, depending on how you feel about me or my reviews, pulled it in. Marvel logo courtesy of the Marvel Comic T Shirt category).
The third movie in a trilogy is rarely the best. Normally the series tends to have a killer first movie followed by crap (the Matrix, the Hangover, Robocop) or it has a mediocre first one but enjoys a rebirth with a better sequel (Star Trek). In most cases you get a couple decent ones and then the creativity pump runs dry for the third (Spider Man, Star Wars, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Godfather, Mad Max) or later.
I honestly don’t know what happens. Maybe we the audience just get jaded and the characters become blase? Perhaps they literally burn up all their cool ideas in the first couple movies and leave you with ideas lifted from the land of lame or just retreads of old hats? Something is running on fumes, resulting in most third movies sucking.
The point is Iron Man bucks this trend by having a movie that is way better than the second film, but not quite a good as the first. This is actually a rousing endorsement as 80% of the first film still puts this movie way ahead of the movie pack. It is fun, exciting, visually stimulating, and has Robert Downey Jr. playing his best role ever as Tony Stark.
Again, not flawless and on a less happy day I might harp on these things in more detail. Throughout most of the film I kept asking “What is the villains actual plan? What does he hope to accomplish with his terrorism plot?” This is the sort of question one hopes to have resolved by the end of the movie but it is pretty much ignored. As far as I can tell the villain is motivated by the fact that he is an a-hole and in order to give Iron Man a reason to kick ass.
The film also almost pushed itself off the cliff by introducing a cute kid sidekick. I blame Disney for this and in most cases this is a sure indication of suckitude. However, I will give the director Shane Black (who did Lethal Weapon 1 and 2, BTW) credit for making this kid actually add to the film rather than anchor it down. He was kind of funny and they didn’t have him do something stupid like ninja kick some adult in the face. Also Tony Stark’s interaction with him was hilarious, and the kid they cast actually has some acting talent (Ty Simpkins-Insidious, the Next Three Days, Little Children).
The story. I am not going to get too deep into this as I expect you all to see this film anyway. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr-Iron Man, the Avengers, Sherlock Holmes) is working on more an more suits while haunted by memories of his extremely near death experience at the end of the Avengers and is suffering from massive insomnia. Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow-Contagion, Thanks for Sharing, The Avengers) runs his company but now lives with Tony. A guy Tony treated badly in 1999 Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce-Momento, Hurt Locker, Prometheus) now has his own think tank and wants to partner up with Stark Industries. Pepper passes on moral grounds.
Meanwhile, the news is full of coverage of bombings by a terrorist called the Mandarin who blows people up in the advancement of something(?). His trick is there is never a trace of the bomb components after the explosion. He blows up Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood and managed to catch long time Stark employee and friend Happy (John Favreau-Swingers, Made, Iron Man). Tony challenges the Mandarin who responds by blowing up his house. Tony has to save Pepper and an ex one night stand super hot scientist (this is the part where I get frustrated with my life) Maya (Rebecca Hall-the Prestige, The Town, Dorian Gray). He gets beat up and knocked unconscious and ends up in the town where the first explosion happened (somehow. Jarvis sent him there based on the last flight plan programmed but really it was to make up for a lack of connecting plot devices).
There he meets the kid Harley who helps him rebuild the suit and find out some information regarding the first bombing. He then gets attacked by a couple henchmen who have red glowing heat healing power (still not sure what that was about. They really didn’t bother to explain it. Red glow=melt steel, super strong, and heal anything. For the record the main henchman was James Badge Dale-the Grey, Shame, the Departed and his assistant was Stephanie Szostak-the Devil Wears Prada, Dinner for Schmucks, We Bought a Zoo).
At this point going much further would kind of spoil things so I won’t. Pepper gets kidnapped. Tony has to rescue her. We meet the Mandarin played brilliantly by the great Ben Kingsley (Ghandi, Sexy Beast, Hugo). Stuff starts blowing up, Jarvis does a lot of the action heavy lifting, and Tony gets to show off a bunch of the new suits he has been creating.
The Stars:
Comic book movie. Two stars. Great action. Two stars. Flawless CGI and effects. Two stars. Excellent acting all around, even the kid. Two stars. If Rebecca Hall ever wants to give up the acting life and marry a guy who sells t-shirts and reviews films she should call me. Heartbreaker. Gwyneth is easy to look at too. One star. While they were kind of lacking in motivation all the villains were super bad ass and cool. One star. Pacing was excellent for a long movie. One star. Some of the suit dynamics and choreography they worked out was really cool, even War Machine. One star. Overall a fun, exciting movie. Two stars. Total: Fourteen stars.
The Black Holes:
While the action was cool, it labored under the burden of PG-13 (Disney style PG-13) like a man with massive elephantitis of the testicles. One black hole. The confusion surrounding what the villains hoped to accomplish drained a lot of the believability from the plot. Being evil for evil’s sake does not enhance a movie villain. One black hole. While the movie was long (130 minutes) there were a lot of missing connective scenes. You could almost see the directors hand gently pushing the plot along. One black hole. I am going to hit this movie for the fact that the trailers (which as a reviewer I have seen about 40 times. No joke) included a lot of scenes that indicated really cool angst or desperation from Stark but when you got to them in the film they were a lot more trivial. There was a lack of motivation for them. The scene where Tony is dragging his suit through the snow could have been fixed had he made one phone call to any of the thousands of Stark employees, and they never established why he didn’t want to make that call. One black hole. This is about as petty as I can get, but at one point Tony has a blood stain dripping from his left eye. However, in a scene a few seconds later it’s on his right side. Then, one more scene later it’s on his left again. I’m willing to put this on the editor for reversing the image, but you would expect a film with a $200 million budget to hire a continuity checker. One black hole. Finally, product placement a go go. One black hole. Total: Six black holes.
A grand total of eight stars and my recommendation that you see this film. You will enjoy the heck out of it. See it on a big screen or you will lose a lot of the visual appeal. A good film, but if you are looking for my vote for best sci fi film so far this year I am still going to go with Oblivion. It had a plot symmetry that this film lacks. Date movie? Sure. However, if your date gets turned on by Robert Downey Jr. be sure to grow a goatee beforehand in order to take advantage of her mental state afterwards. Bathroom break? There is a scene where Pepper is talking to Maya on a bed in a hotel room that could be missed with impunity about 2/3rds of the way through. I’d try to hold it if you can however. You don’t want to miss much of this.
Thanks for reading. Follow me on Twitter @Nerdkungfu. Post comments on this review or movie here. If you have off topic questions or suggestions feel free to email me at [email protected]. Talk to you soon.
Dave
