Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Critical Review on 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'

Overall, the Rotten Tomatoes tomatometer has given The Curious Case of Benjamin Button a rating of 72%, based on an average calculated from all the reviews on the site. The summary states that the film is an 'epic fantasy tale' with 'fantastic performances'. The 3 reviews I will be looking at are by:
  1. Peter Bradshaw (Guardian UK) - Score 1/5
  2. A.O. Scott (New York Times) - Score 4.5/5
  3. Ian Freer (Empire magazine) - Score 5/5
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian UK
The reviewer seems to dislike the structure of the story and how incredibly flawed it is. He picks out the films long run-time, the sometimes badly created CGI effects which cause characters to look artificial, and the lack of any apparent insight or lesson to be learnt. The reviewer praises the film for how it makes charactres look older, but complains that when attempting to make them look younger, their skin comes across as metalic. 
He also comments on how Hollywood has found a market for these movies among older audiences, saying they are simply nostalgiafests from the south. He also complains about the lack of media or medical attention paid to Bejamin, despite his condition. 
Taking a look back at this reviewers history, he rarely awards fours and fives. Movies which have been given huge critical acclaim recently have been reviewed as 3/5, for example Slumdog Millionaire and Milk, both of which won oscars. I didnt learn anyhting in particular from this review. it seemed to just pick out the bad points but not give any constructive criticism. 

A.O. Scott, New York Times
This reviewer commnts mainly on how this story has been expertly crafted into a full blown love story for the big screen, and indicates how he feels the movie investigates the backward experiences of its main character. He talks heavily about how the movie invites us to contemplte on the complexity of the different situations present in the movie. He says that although these situations are not always dramatically satisfying, they are interesting and intriguing.  Like the previous review, this also relate the movie to Forest Gump, indicating that it is a hybrid. 
I did learn a bit from this review about the directors focus on his settings and characters in place of SFX. I feel this review brings through the reviewers positive thoughts about the film, but also reflects the other side of the coin and points out its flaws. He says how emotionally detatched Benjamin is form his own condition and how Benjamin is simply an 'object for contemplation' rather than a 'candidate for our empathy'.

Ian Freer, Empire Magazine
 

1 comment:

  1. This is great Faizal. You will be doing a similar things with your three texts and start to think about the validity of the sources and the impact of the reviews. Well done.

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