Movie: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

[itadakimasu]

I saw this movie last night. It wasn't bad. Saw it w\ my wife, sister, and mom...

Anybody else see it?



i would have liked it less if i would have heard somebody tell me this before seeing it... so if you want to see this movie don't read the following spoiler opinion of mine.. :

I was thinking about it just now and I realized just how similar it is to forest gump

[Animeniax]

I read some reviews of it and they mesh with your spoiler. I think the reverse age thing was a gimmick similar to Forrest's mild retardation. I don't know if Brad Pitt playing the lead character helps or hurts. It's like Tom Cruise playing a role, he's too polarizing a figure and that takes away from the character he's playing.

[Mugen]

from the trailer, this movie looks boring, not many good movies out right now

[Sapphire]

From the trailer, the movie looks depressing, like Synecdoche, New York.

[Animeniax]

You guys are glass-half-empty kind of folk, amirite? I thought the trailer made the movie seem upbeat and hopeful. I think it'd be amazing to not live the standard life of growing up, getting a job, getting married, getting old, dying. The thing about Forrest is that he's mildly retarded, so all the cool stuff he does in his life doesn't register with him as being cool or amazing. If you were fully aware like Benjamin button seems to be, it'd be a blast to grow younger each day.

I've always agreed it's the way life should be, growing from old age to the womb.

[Raven]

It was pretty good - dragged a bit, I thought. I didn't like Brad Pitt in the role, it was horribly cast IMO, should have been someone like Ewan McGregor who has more of a baby face or more of a magical quality that Brad Pitt doesn't have.

The age effects were done particularly well though, a lot of people didn't even know it was Cate Blanchett as the old dying woman. And I'm not sure how but they managed to make Brad Pitt look like he was in his 20s again. Not bad for a guy who's pushing 50.

I liked it, but it tried too hard to be the next Forrest Gump and fell short of the mark. Forrest Gump seemed more, I dunno, epic?

*Edit: And it was kind of weird how everyone totally accepted his condition, never questioned it, never tried to study it. It was as if they'd seen it many times before.

[XanBcoo]

I liked this movie, but I didn't love it. It was definitely way too long. Every single scene could have had at least one minute cut from it to shorten it considerably. It was predictable Hollywood tear-jerkery, but I still enjoyed it. It had good characters, at least.

You guys are glass-half-empty kind of folk, amirite? I thought the trailer made the movie seem upbeat and hopeful. I think it'd be amazing to not live the standard life of growing up, getting a job, getting married, getting old, dying.The thing about Forrest is that he's mildly retarded, so all the cool stuff he does in his life doesn't register with him as being cool or amazing. If you were fully aware like Benjamin button seems to be, it'd be a blast to grow younger each day.

If you'd seen the movie, you'd probably be more understanding. I might get a bit spoilerish, but when it comes down to it, despite the similarities to Forrest Gump, Benjamin Button doesn't actually do anything very cool. His life isn't any different from your average well-traveled person. He does everything in your description of a "standard life" and nothing more, only he does it backwards. The movie is a look at how he deals with the challenge of not being able to have a normal romantic relationship.

*Edit: And it was kind of weird how everyone totally accepted his condition, never questioned it, never tried to study it. It was as if they'd seen it many times before.

Yeah, this bugged me too. Also, when Blanchet asked him "What's it like growing younger?" they opted for the cheap, Hollywood, quotable answer "I'm always seeing the world through my own eyes" instead of, you know, actually answer the Goddamn question. There's so much I wanted to know about how his mind worked, and so much they could have explored, but in the end I guess it was sort of a gimmick.

Still good though.

[Animeniax]

If you'd seen the movie, you'd probably be more understanding.

I don't watch movies anymore unless they get at least 4 stars on netflix.

[XanBcoo]

Honestly, watching the trailer is enough. The damn thing pretty much lays out the entire plot. The rest is schmaltzy filler.

[Sapphire]

In that case, it would be more satisfying to read the Wiki article of the actual book?

[XanBcoo]

Well, like I said, it does have some interesting characters, and is a pretty decent movie overall. However, by the end of it you really do feel like you have viewed a person's entire lifespan. It drags.

I do think something must be said for the emotional impact of the story. Somehow when a baby-faced, 20 year-old Brad Pitt shows up near the end of the movie you actually feel devastated. That whole scene was pretty tense, actually, as if Benjamin had fallen victim to The Plague or some other incurable disease. I guess it takes good writing to make the prospect of growing younger an unattractive one.

[Paper]

I actually enjoyed watching this movie. The movie was dragged out for incredible amount of time, there was alot of "Unnecessary Scenes".

I didn't understand why the preacher died all of a sudden, and what was exactly Benjamin's age when he actually died or even the fact that no one even question the fact that he was getting younger.

[Raven]

http://www.moviesmackdown.com/2009/01/buttonawards.html

Scroll down and watch the embedded video...

It's funny because it's true!