Sunday, May 12, 2013

Review: The Great Gatsby

IMDb

Title:
The Great Gatsby 

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writer(s):  Baz Luhrmann (screenplay), Craig Pearce (screenplay)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joel Edgerton, Tobey Maguire,Carey Mulligan
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some violent images, sexual content, smoking, partying and brief language
Running Time: 143 min
Synopsis: A Midwestern war veteran finds himself drawn to the past and lifestyle of his millionaire neighbor.


What Others Are Saying?


Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 47% "Fresh", Top Critics: 32% "Fresh", Audience: 84% "Like It"
Metacritic: Critics: 55 out of 100, Users: 8.0 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 58 out of 100
My Review

Source Material: Based from the book with the same name, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Entertaining Value:

  • Action Elements: If you take in account of the atmosphere of the "Roaring 20's" then this film is an action film all the way. This film dose a good job leading us through the life of an adventures "playboy" of the 1920's.    
  • Comedy Elements: This film continues down the road of the 1920's when it come to the comedy in the film, therefore it exemplifies the light heartness of that era.  
  • Dramatic Elements: This is where the film shine brightest. I like how well the film portrayed the themes and motifs from the book.    
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: The film plays with some fantasy elements but only in an artistic way. This film is more or less a dramatic comedy.   
Cinematic Value:
  • Acting and Dialogue: 7:  Leonardo DiCaprio recreated Gatsby. I personally like his portrayal. The other actors did a great job as well, except maybe Tobey Maguire. I'm only saying that because he always seem a bit awkward, or even "out of place" in all this roles. So in general Tobey Maguire is already a hard sell. The dialogue is rememberable and quotable.Which I think come from good script writing.          
  • Art Direction: 8: I feel like Baz Luhrmann film's always have good art direction. To me his film are a cross of beautiful and trippy, not psychedelic, but colorful. That might be attributed to the cinematography style he uses in his films. I really love the costumes in this film, I know that's a different department, but bravo. 
  • Cinematography: 7: The cinematography style in this film must be trademark by Baz Luhrmann's "DoP" because as I was watching this film It reminded me of his other films like Moulin Rouge or even Romeo + Juliet. That's not a bad thing, its in my opinion a good thing, make it more distinguished.            
  • Direction: 6: I felt like this film was to much like roller coaster in its pacing...to fast, then to slow, up then down..ect.         
  • Editing: 6: The editing in this film is weird like most of Baz Luhrmann's films.     
  • Screenplay: 7: I thought the character developmental in this film was fantastic as far as that goes. For the adaption part, I sit on the fence. I barley remember reading the book in high school, which was long enough time ago to forget a good chunk of the story. From what I have heard it is a solid representation of the book.                     
  • Sound and Music: 2: Now for the worst part of the film in my opinion. Everything about the 1920's atmosphere was represented in away that was copacetic, except for music. Who in there right mind decided to mix 1920's music with modern rap. The music was actually a detraction because it didn't fit the atmosphere. Maybe the filmmakers were trying to make the connection that irresponsible party attitude of the "Roaring 20's" is a refection of today. I also noticed that sometimes they would use "rap music" to highlight the black culture having a good time, which I felt was very stereotypical if not border line racist. I don't know what they were trying to achieve with music, all I know is it was BAD.        
  • VFX: 7: The visual effect accompanied the art direction and cinematography very well .    
Overall: 6.5: Strip away the Baz Luhrmann style and this film dose even worse. I feel this film is good for a one time go at the movie theater for the matinee prices, or just waiting and renting it. I think this film is also more enjoyable with a group over watching be yourself.           

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