THE BORE
General => The Superdeep Borehole => Topic started by: TVC15 on October 28, 2007, 01:03:17 PM
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I just finished watching it a few moments ago. Can't say I didn't enjoy the movie, but I also can't say that it's a great movie. I mean, great by Hollywood standards, maybe, but Aronofsky was swinging for a home run and delivered a solid double.
Let's get it out of the way before I criticize: in case you haven't noticed, I liked the movie. Aronofsky is 3 for 3 in my book and still one of the young directors people should give a dump about. Shove Wes Anderson up your asses; Aronofsky is the real deal. I applaud that he is still experimentiing wildly in just about every possible way. Aside from some of the esotericism of Pi, this is all new territory for Aronofsky, and potentially new territory for science fiction/fantasy, as I can not recall another genre movie offhand that did anything similar to this.
The kudos out of the way, let's get to the problems, and some of them are pretty major. This is Aronofsky's first problematic movie, really. Pi and Requiem are pretty much perfect movies (for what the are), and while that's a bit of a downer, we all knew the perfect streak would have to end sooner or later. Probably sooner. And it did.
First off, this movie is indulgent to the nth degree. This is a given, knowing the movie's troubled development history. If it was anything but a pet project, I am sure Aronofsky would have dumped it during the storied 6 years it took to get this film made. But not everyone is me, and they will see this and say "god damn this is one indulgent movie." And heck, I'm saying that and I did know the movie's history. I was prepared.
It's tough to decide where the line between ambition and indulgence gets drawn. For example, like a full half of the shots in this movie are center-framed. This probably has something to do with the movie's exploration of cycles of life and death, and the movie's attempt at a symmetrical structure. The fact that previous 2 sentences have to exist is the line.
Aronofsky plays with weighty themes throughout, and I could go on for pages about the references and whatnot that I caught, and I haven't even read the wikipedia entry yet. I am sure he crammed a ton of shit in there that I missed. The thing is, in The Fountain, dealing with these themes equates to rote repetition. Oh, that happened in the other storyline. Oh, this is analogous to that. Ooo, those two characters said the same line! That's a good device, and I am sure defenders will chock it up to the symmetrical structure, but it gets a bit worn when it's the main trick in the bag
I'd imagine that Aronofsky (and the people that love this film) would say it has a mandala-like structure or some such. That doesn't do anything for me. It's impressive and all, but I prefer my movies to be thought-provoking, or give viewers something to talk about at the end. This deals with its themes in such a simple way that prevents those from ocurring, really. It is a really, really obvious movie that thinks it is really, really deep.
The movie is also very brief. It's impressive that he crammed all of this into 90 minutes, but it definitely felt scaled back from something much longer. That I would like to have seen. I was somewhat disappointed to see that as the movie was crossing the hour mark, it was approaching its end. Maybe if it wasn't due to being scaled back, we'd have something more.
I feel like I am hating on it too much. I liked it a lot, but it wasn't all it could be. The only reason I expected more was because Aronofsky has given us more substance in the past. I'm glad this movie exists, and I am glad to own it (on BLU RAY). It just left me wanting moar in a not so good way.
In brief
- this movie looked really fucking good considering its budget. I'd like to see what Aronofsky could do with big money, but I imagine the bombing of The Fountain will make sure that never happens.
- Hugh Jackman is probably one of the best actors going today.
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The acting rocked, the movie was meh
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Agreed, meh movie.
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9.5/10
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9.5/10
You included this in your 10 films of all time on facebook. :-\
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Oh, PD!
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his top 25 of all time at facebook has like 5 movies from last year. :-\
Edit which are:
The Fountain
The Departed
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men
Babel
This is his list of ALL MOVIES EVER OF ALL TIME mind you loool
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If we are attaching numbers to things:
Pi is an 8.5. Requiem for a Dream is a 9. And The Fountain is, oh, lets say a 7.5 or 7.
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There is a Fountain graphic novel, TVC. You might want to check it out.
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There is a Fountain graphic novel, TVC. You might want to check it out.
I saw that back when it first came out, like a full year before the movie. I was interested but:
1) I wasn't going to read the graphic novel before seeing the movie
2) It was hardcover only and like 40 bucks
I bet I could find it cheaper, now. Have you read it?
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There is a Fountain graphic novel, TVC. You might want to check it out.
I saw that back when it first came out, like a full year before the movie. I was interested but:
1) I wasn't going to read the graphic novel before seeing the movie
2) It was hardcover only and like 40 bucks
I bet I could find it cheaper, now. Have you read it?
No, I haven't. I haven't watched my Blu-ray copy of The Fountain, yet.
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brad pitt was supposed to be in this, but he dropped out due to ''creative differences.''
apparently he's going to be in a new aronofsky movie.
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That was really early on, though. Brad Pitt left (to do Troy) and The Fountain was effectively canceled. Then a bit later, it was brought back, with half of its original budget, with Hugh Jackman instead of Brad Pitt.
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That was really early on, though. Brad Pitt left (to do Troy) and The Fountain was effectively canceled. Then a bit later, it was brought back, with half of its original budget, with Hugh Jackman instead of Brad Pitt.
Also, Cate Blanchett was going to play the Izzy role.
My big problem with the movie was that I didn't like Rachel Weisz in it. I'd give it a solid 8.
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glad you liked it okay
the way I describe it to people was "poetry, not prose" -- it has no sort of a narrative structure at all, but it has a set of repeating patterns and motifs that circle around each other to create something uniquely itself. I have to be in the right mood to want to watch it, but it's kind of like visual music...you just submerge yourself in it and don't worry too much about the p's and q's.
you also didn't mention anything about the BONERIFIC Clint Mansell score in your review. it's clearly the best thing he's ever done and that's saying a LOT!
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Actually, I meant to mention that this was the weakest score of his 3 movies! It was still good, but again, he set a pretty impressive precedent.
Requiem for a Dream might be the best soundtrack of the decade.
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ouch
I would rank them Fountain > Requiem >>> Pi
Though they're all good.
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i'd put pi above requiem, i think. probably because the former was so, i dunno, different, i guess. i don't really know what to think of it actually--it's been a while since i saw it--but it being black and white really added to it; and there was also this one scene where the fly melted on his motherboard which wasn't really anything significant, but it creeped me out for some reason.
they're both the type of movies that you--well, atleast, i--wouldn't watch all that often, and pi did a better job of not making me want to watch it again than requiem. and that's probably why i like it more.
my post probably doesn't make much sense, but that's how i kinda feel about both the two.
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I was talking soundtracks, not movies
movies I'd rate requiem > fountain > pi
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I probably go a bit easy on Pi because it was his first movie, but there are very few debut pics that I can think of that are as great as that.
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It is a really, really obvious movie that thinks it is really, really deep.
The movie is also very brief. It's impressive that he crammed all of this into 90 minutes, but it definitely felt scaled back from something much longer. That I would like to have seen.
Similar to my feelings. I was disappointed by the movie. I got tired of the New Age stuff, felt like there was a greater, fuller movie that I missed and even the mansell score was less remarkable than normal.
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total shite
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his top 25 of all time at facebook has like 5 movies from last year. :-\
Edit which are:
The Fountain
The Departed
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men
Babel
This is his list of ALL MOVIES EVER OF ALL TIME mind you loool
No those are just some of my fav movies. It's a random list, as I told you earlier
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I still cannot believe I haven't fucken watched this motherfucken movie. This weekend, Bru Ray, I'm there. With that said, I've been listening to the score over and over and over again. God, "Stay with me" is about as emotionally uplifting (whatever that means) a track I've ever listened too, I love it.
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Get ready to say "that was it?"
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I didn't think it was bad, but I felt like it the storyline was way too scattered, and not in that "its cool to figure it out" way.
I also felt like some scenes felt empty and devoid of meaning.
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I loved this movie
Just to start off, I felt like the hidden meanings in the movie weren't really emphasized, sort of put there to figure out but the main point was paramount (Tommy having to deal with Izzy's death).
I don't know, I'll probably watch it again to piece it together but I was too sucked in by Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz's superb acting. Man, Jackman is fucking amazing...the dude isn't acting he WAS this person dealing with a terminal cancer patient, he WAS this person traveling through time dealing with isolation. Best actor ever.
The movies subject pretty much assured there would be no real closure so I was ok with how it ended
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Finally got around to watching it as well...
It wasn't terrible. I found it really relaxing.