Benjamin Button

[skizzerflake]

Ok...I saw the trailers and several local reviewers pronounced it as their candidate for "greatest movie ever made" or something like that. I saw it tonight and while it was well acted with an excellent look and feel, I didn't think it was all that great. The acting was good, the look and feel excellent in its sepia-tinted soft focus, sentimental way, but why does this story make sense? The fairy tale, mythic portrayal made me expect that in the end there would be some sort of lesson or presentation of wisdom or great conclusion about life, but no. By the end, I mainly was thinking about how good it would feel to take off my shoes. Is this a great movie that went right past me?

 

[j_garcia]

Have to say I felt the same way. I was expecting something to get more interesting or have some huge impact and then it just kept going. On BD, the video was great; the audio was not such an impact due to the slow pace of the film IMO, even though it was dts-HD. I wasn't disappointed with it, but I did feel that it got a bit more hype than it deserved. It was good not great.

To me it was a Forrest Gump rehash that lacked most of the personality of Gump. It was very much about the characters and their relationships over time that was supposed to try to make you see that people in our lives change over time and, however all I felt was that it was practically never the "right" time for the characters and I came away not with a feeling of resolution for the characters, but more of a sadness that they all had these large "gaps" in their lives in between the so-called happy times. It is worth a rental IMO, because it is a good film, but it didn't set any new standards.

 

[Lordoftherings]

It's a very good movie, but it's not a Super Great Film.

It is a good movie.

The Blu-ray has an excellent video transfer, the picture is immaculate.
The soundtrack is very good, good musical score.
The acting, in particular by Brad Pitt is commentable.
The extras are enlightning.

Mix everything in the blender, and you got a solid product.

As for replay value, well, you don't want to put all these ingredients in the blender too often, mostly for appreciating the artistic blend.

Bob

 

[j_garcia]

I have to disagree, the acting in this movie was rather pedestrian. Brad is a great actor, but this was not one of his better performances IMO. I don't expect to ever revisit this film.

 

[Lordoftherings]

I have to disagree, the acting in this movie was rather pedestrian. Brad is a great actor, but this was not one of his better performances IMO. I don't expect to ever revisit this film.

What! You disagree with my personal opinion!

OK, that is your opinion, I won't argue with you.


But FYPI, Brad did a very good job, maybe not in the same caliber of "Kalifornia" or "Fight Club" or "Seven", but still commentable.
Don't forget here that you have to take into consideration the work that he also did off-camera. Try that for a change, and tell me how you react?
By the way, I did some acting at school.

As for replay value, I did put the emphasis on the technical artistic aspect of the film.

I studied film cinema at school and work also as a projectionist; and the art direction, camera angles, locations, CGI integration, pristine picture, sound design, etc., are all top notch and deserve to be view and replay in that context. For me, it is very rewarding from the appreciation of the artistic team and the direction in that movie. That's what make this film not only good, but VERY good.

Now, you're free to disagree with my commentary, but that will put you in your true class, or should I say, your real education.
No offense at all intended, just the facts.

Regards,

Bob

P.S. Please, could you tell me if I made some spelling mistakes or wrong tense of verbs? I feel not too sure about few things here; I will greatly appreciate your inputs on both my possible grammary or spelling mistakes and on your personal reaction or response to my commentary. Thank you.

 

[Nomo]

To me it was a Forrest Gump rehash that lacked most of the personality of Gump.

That sums it up for me as well.
Watched it last night on BD. It wasn't bad, but it certainly wasn't worth the 2 hours and 45 minutes of my life I spent watching it.
The picture was good, but the audio was probably the most lackluster I've experienced on a DVD or BD.

 

[Omega Supreme]

I think I read a review that summed it up like this: "Forest Gump was a movie about an ordinary man that had and extraordinary life and Benjamin Button was an extraordinary man that had an ordinary life." That’s how I felt after the film. Yes the film is technically great but it didn't move me in any way. So to me this makes the film simply average. Not bad, not good, just average. Also, why did he shrink back to baby size when he died? He was not born 6' tall and 200lbs?

 

[j_garcia]

What! You disagree with my personal opinion!

OK, that is your opinion, I won't argue with you.

But FYPI, Brad did a very good job, maybe not in the same caliber of "Kalifornia" or "Fight Club" or "Seven", but still commentable.
Don't forget here that you have to take into consideration the work that he also did off-camera. Try that for a change, and tell me how you react?
By the way, I did some acting at school.

You forgot "And some cleaning products" from True Romance And 12 Monkeys.

As for replay value, I did put the emphasis on the technical artistic aspect of the film.

I studied film cinema at school and work also as a projectionist; and the art direction, camera angles, locations, CGI integration, pristine picture, sound design, etc., are all top notch and deserve to be view and replay in that context. For me, it is very rewarding from the appreciation of the artistic team and the direction in that movie. That's what make this film not only good, but VERY good.

I don't need to study cinema to know what a good movie is and is not. I notice cinematography and production quite a bit, and I don't disagree that this movie was very well presented. It wasn't the techincal aspects of the movie that didn't work for me. And while good, the digital aspects of his transformations in some of the scenes were a bit too obvious, as well as quite a bit of obvious makeup in his 50s and 40s. They used lighting and the film itself to try to compensate for some of what they were going to have to do to make him look right. It was very well done, but I have seen better in movies that are considered "lesser" movies. Perhaps it is just that Blu-ray is so good that it is easier to see these flaws. I am likely being more critical of this film because I expected more of it.

My problem with the film is that if the fundamentals don't draw you in sufficiently, even the best cinematography won't save it, and that is what I feel happened here. They spent too much time and effort on the techical aspects while the story sort of languished, and the heart of most movies (certainly one like this) is the story.

On a side note, I haven't seen Julia Ormond in a movie in quite some time.

P.S. Please, could you tell me if I made some spelling mistakes or wrong tense of verbs? I feel not too sure about few things here; I will greatly appreciate your inputs on both my possible grammary or spelling mistakes and on your personal reaction or response to my commentary. Thank you.

Commentable - commendable.

"Forest Gump was a movie about an ordinary man that had and extraordinary life and Benjamin Button was an extraordinary man that had an ordinary life."

That is an excellent way of putting it. I had not thought about it that way.

 

[I.Canton]

I had a chance to see this really, and I quite liked it. I wasn't as blown away as I was expecting to be, but it was definitely an enjoyable film. I think if nothing else, the visual effects were very impressive.

 

[Lordoftherings]

Thank you J. Garcia for your "commendable" post.

I do appreciate your honest input.

Yes, Brad was in so many movies... But I think that in "Kalifornia" he will be remember as the pretty bad guy for quite a while.

And I do respect your take on "Benjamin Button".
It was a very difficult story to put in the big sreen, and I think that is why I'm most impressed about. I love directors that take big challenges like that.
So, by learning more from the special features on this blu-ray, I appreciate that much more this film and it's artistry.

Regards,

Bob

 

[skizzerflake]

What! You disagree with my personal opinion!

OK, that is your opinion, I won't argue with you. ....

As for replay value, I did put the emphasis on the technical artistic aspect of the film.

I studied film cinema at school and work also as a projectionist; and the art direction, camera angles, locations, CGI integration, pristine picture, sound design, etc., are all top notch and deserve to be view and replay in that context. For me, it is very rewarding from the appreciation of the artistic team and the direction in that movie. That's what make this film not only good, but VERY good.

Now, you're free to disagree with my commentary, but that will put you in your true class, or should I say, your real education.
No offense at all intended, just the facts. .....

This doesn't work for me. Too much technical perfection in a story that made no sense. Camera angles, locations, CGI, etc, don't give this story any traction, they just increase the budget. I can think of hundreds of movies with worse production values that kept my attention better than this empty exercise in technical perfection. It's not a good sign when I get 3/4 of the way through a movie hoping for any ending that will get me out of the theater. I can match cinematic education with pretty much anybody, but there's no way that putting slick clothes on this wet dog makes it into a race horse.

 

[Lordoftherings]

Hi buddy from Baltimore.

Hey, how you doing in Baltimore? My two Def. Tech. subs were made there.
Bruce Springsteen sing about it, and I'm a big fan.

I absolutely respect your opinion, which is shared by few more people too.

Sorry if you felt somehow "touched" by my touch about this film, it's just that I'm a freak of technical aspects of cinema. I can escape it with my background.

But I do agree with you, that the story kind of languish too long on this curious case.

Anyway, you take care of yourself and your love ones.

Bob

 

[ParadigmDawg]

Watched it last night and really enjoyed it.

 

[CraigV]

Just finished this one and have to say I really enjoyed it. I thought all the acting was top notch and the way the story played out was very engaging. I appreciated the tone of the main characters and how that translated into the overall tone of the film. I loved the make-up & CGI effects in how BP’s face was always present in all the early iterations of Benjamin’s life. A young man in an old mans body raised in an “old folks” home, feeling he was accepted there but misunderstood in the rest of the world gave him a wonderfully humble nature which prevailed throughout. 4 out of 5 stars for me. Given the original story was written a long time ago, I would be curious to see how it compares to this more modern telling.

As to those who felt they missed out on the soundtrack - the scene between the tug & the sub was fantastic.