First it WILL win best make-up and if it doesn't, I will be wrong about every Oscar speculation. Now best adapted screenplay and best picture it should not win. I sat watching and finding myself thinking that this is an amazingly shot film but I just feel like with different material and the same look, style, and direction it would be a film that would live forever. There is a small clip of soldiers going through a battle field backwards in time and another point where there is a small naval scuffle. I feel if the story wasn't Benjamin Button but something with fantasy, dancing used as a symbolic movement through out the picture, and made the main story love during war and I would have left amazed. The story just wasn't good enough for the acting, visuals, and direction.
David Fincher will win best director and if not I say Slumdog Millionaire (though I haven't seen it yet). Another Oscar it won't win is sound editing, since some lines of dialogue were barely understandable. The movie is brilliant, though some of the early stages of Ben Buttons life makes him look like the movie was made by the people who brought us Polar Express. After Benjamin gets old enough that you can see the Brad Pitt in him, I started to enjoy it more but then the love interest was almost detestable but as I said before the story just wasn't right. So much greatness, yet fails at the first stage of the film making process. If some of this film was taken and yet new bits were written in with a war story, I'd be a happy man. One last comment... I'm sick of this The Note Book and Big Fish style of story telling. Old, dying people with stories being told just is annoying and it's losing its emotional pull.
The Notebook is an overrated film anyway. Can't wait to see Button.
ReplyDeletei'm on the fence over whether or not i want to see this one. it's gotten very mixed reviews thus far. i've been interested in the movie since i'd seen one of its original teasers last year, the concept was one which i found very intriguing. since it's release in theaters, however, i've heard more things about it like what you've mentioned. dodgy cgi, uninteresting relationships, and a story which, as you said, "wasn't right."
ReplyDeletei might possibly see it, but there are certainly films which are higher on the list of priorities.
by the way, director of slumdog, Danny Boyle, took a golden globe for best director, not to mention it getting best screenplay, soundtrack, and one other i can't remember, so i'm expecting that they'll be just as successful at the oscars.
Yeah I for see Slumdog getting best picture and screenplay (adapted?) and some of the technical work. Clint Eastwood for best actor with only Mickey Rourke as true competition. Kate Winslet for best actress, stealing it from Meryl Streep. Heath Ledger will get best supporting actor, with The Dark Knight possibly taking best sound or one of the other technicals. Ben Button will get best director because it was very well directed, but Slumdog will put up a major fight. Supporting Actress... Winslet got the Golden Globe but I'm still not sure if they'd give her both of those Oscars. As I said make-up would be Button. Animated will be Wall*E despite how much I rather it be something else... like Kung-Fu Panda. As for costume, original screenplay, and a few of the other smaller categories will be dispersed among Slumdog, Revolutionary Road, and Ben Button with some chance among films like The Wrestler, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, and Rachel Getting Married.
ReplyDeletewhy you hatin on Wall-E?
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan, Costal. That's why I'm hatin' on Wall*E. If I wanted to be hit in the face with political statements, I'll watch CSPAN. I go to movies to have symbolism and ideas to be portrayed subtly. If you want a movie that does a great job on touching things like pollution, obesity, and many other issues go watch Miyazaki's Spirited Away.
ReplyDeletegod i love Spirited Away
ReplyDeletebut I still don't understand your absurd hatred of Pixar, Paul.
Me either but I do. I really think it was A Bugs Life that caused it and the lose of regular Disney animated movies. They were only making Pixar movies and nothing hand drawn like the originals.
ReplyDeletePaul, I heard you laugh during Wall-E, in the scene where AUTO is looking for the Captain and he's hiding in the photo. So you had to have enjoyed it a little bit :)
ReplyDeleteEnjoying parts does not make the movie something I liked. How did a topic about Ben Button and how much I thought it was only borderline great, turn into Wall*E and whether I liked it or not. I still left going "ehhh Ratatouille was better." And now that I've seen Kung-Fu Panda, I can say I liked the Panda much much much more.
ReplyDeletejust got back from seeing it
ReplyDeleteYou sum things up pretty nicely, Paul. Everything looked wonderful, every scene was well-shot. I literally "wow"-ed at the shot where Benjamin and his father are sitting by the lake, just because it looked so beautiful.
I feel like Brad Pitt wasn't the best choice for the role. There were points where I couldn't see Benjamin Button, just Brad Pitt playing Benjamin Button. I think that was the point where I stopped enjoying the movie as much, the point where you could clearly tell that it was Brad Pitt under all of the make-up. I think they could have used someone else entirely, someone unknown. Brad didn't really fit in, in my opinion.
Musically I was very, very pleased. I understand that Slumdog will most likely take the award for best soundtrack this year, but there were points during this movie where I felt the musical score was simply perfect. It always felt appropriate, it was magnificent to listen to, and it was never something which annoyed me (something I've been having issues with in newer movies.)
I did find the movie enjoyable, and I would recommend it as one of this years better films, but I just wish that the magic I felt from it had stayed longer than the first half into it.