5. Avatar – 7.8/10
Yet another James Cameron movie. And there’s really not much to add to what has been said about “Aliens.” The problem with “Avatar” is pretty much the same. What makes it worse is that it is creating a new world. A new franchise. And innovating in many ways regarding the new technology of visual effects and sound design. There are four more sequels announced to the franchise, and after seeing this introduction to this new world, expectations are low.
The expectations that come from a new sci-fi project are not limited to new visual effects. We are expecting something that makes us think, something new that is presented in an innovative cinematic way. Not just a display of technology.
Utilize this technology combined with the hundreds of great ideas people all around the world have about the subject of science fiction, and you will have something special. Utilize this technology in order to please your lobbies and self-indulge onto your own movie business, and you will have something that is not only disappointing, but sad.
4. Forrest Gump – 8.8/10
Tom Hanks’ performance as Forrest Gump is quite impressive, and the concept and story of the movie is quite solid, so what makes “Forrest Gump” overrated?
It’s one of those movies that seems so fake and over the top that it is unbearable to appreciate if you have some kind of experience with movies. The cinematography, the jokes, the transitions, the narration, the going back and forth the way it does. Everything seems so simulated that when it comes to the end, as if it wasn’t over the top enough, it just goes overly melodramatic, ruining any kind of emotional punch it could have built.
Personally, I don’t understand it. It’s ridiculously cheery, trying to please everything and everyone and taking the viewer as dumb with its distractions and counterfeit sentimentality. It’s baffling how a movie like this, one that says everything you’re expecting it would and nothing that you wouldn’t, a movie that’s the safest you can do as a big budget project, can get so much recognition. A shame that most people take it as one of the best.
3. Braveheart – 8.4/10
This movie is full of Hollywood clichés, including the obnoxious and cringeworthy idea of good vs. evil in a such underdeveloped manner that it makes Sunday morning cartoons seem like deep character studies. I really don’t understand how a movie so manipulative and uninventive can be regarded as one of the best movies of all time.
It’s not all bad, for sure, as Mel Gibson likes in his later projects (where he proves that he really has the talent and the right people to create great technical achievements, sadly never achieving greatness due to the cheesiness and blandness surrounding his work, and the closest he got to making a good movie later was “Apocalypto” and “Hacksaw Ridge”), it displays some decent scenes, cinematically speaking, that look and sound great if you turn off your brain.
It is an average movie. No more than that. And about the famous war cry? It is a pain to watch. While not being as bad as “The Passion of the Christ,” I’d say the only thing worth about watching this movie is to try and understand how such a mediocre piece can be so high ranked in the biggest movie database on the internet.
2. Fight Club – 8.8/10
David Fincher is probably one of the most overrated directors of all time, together with the man responsible for the number one movie on this list. Despite this statement, “Fight Club” is possibly one of his best movies. But there is a problem with a movie such as this.
When dealing with a subject matter like violence, anarchic behavior, and rebellion, you are expected to deliver a movie that is radical and that proposes a solution to such problems. The issue with “Fight Club” is that while presenting these tribulations of our corrupted society, it does so in a very unsatisfying way. This movie is to philosophy and thought what magazine headlines are to describing an actual news article.
It’s a movie that shoots at everyone, at materialism, superficiality, and futility. But the reasons the movie is angry at these things are nothing new, and bring no new awareness or new thought provocation regarding its ideas.
It is one of the most irritating things to talk to someone who thinks this is one of the deepest, most radical and edgy movies of all time, when at the end of the day it’s just a bland, while sometimes technically brilliant, piece of juvenile angst put into a predictable Hollywood movie.
1. Interstellar – 8.6/10
Once I had a talk with one of the followers of the Taste of Cinema website that described “Interstellar” as “being tripe disguised as an intellectual piece.” While I’m not agreeing totally with the guy, I see his point. The problem with “Interstellar” is similar to what I described with “Fight Club,” its stupidity going even further. Why does a movie like “Interstellar” pretend that what it’s depicting is actually factual?
It goes so far in its truisms about the relation of science with men and its futility for its emotional punch to have any impact at all. At the end of the movie, one feels one of two things: either they feel cheated and offended by the way the movie is treating them, or they are inexperienced enough to slurp all the crap the movie tries to shove down their throat. It’s a sham of a movie, it’s anything but intellectual, and it should not be regarded as philosophical in any way because it doesn’t present any new ideas, or even present OLD ideas that are relevant or thoughtful in any way.
Despite all the bad talk, “Interstellar” is a really beautifully crafted piece. Great visual effects, great soundtrack. It’s just sad that a movie that addresses a subject like time and its relation to human life can turn into such a cheesy mess that’s just pretending to be complex and intellectual.
It’s not the only time Nolan pretends to create a deep, challenging and innovative movie, while in truth just making another blockbuster. Yes, “Interstellar” IS a blockbuster. Like famous critic Nick Pinkerton once said regarding the pretentiousness of “Interstellar” and Christopher Nolan: “All he’s provided is another harvest of corn.” Do yourself a favor and go watch “Solaris” by Andrei Tarkovsky, it has more or less the same running time as “Interstellar” and you’ll experience something that’s not a simulated “big brain” blockbuster.