-Spoilers!-
I didn’t watch this one when everyone was peeing themselves about how good it was. I have the probably unhealthy mentality that if I hear a ton of good things about a movie, I’ll most likely be disappointed when I see it. Because of this, I usually wait a long while before I’ll watch a movie that people rave about to me, saying “You have to see it!” Like an obstinate child, I sulk for a while before I watch anything that’s supposedly amazing. I usually come around in the end.
I am happy that I waited to see Slumdog Millionaire. I think if I would have caved in and watched it when it first came out, or even when it later won the Oscar for best picture, I would have turned against it just because everyone was saying it was the best movie in the world, ever.
Now I can gladly and a little more unbiased-ly state that I thought it was good. It wasn’t great, and it wasn’t better than everything ever. It was just a good movie. I liked the soundtrack a lot, and I appreciated the pacing—not an overload of suspense, but not boring either. Characters I could get involved with.
The only thing I had reservations about was the odd disjunction of all the in-your-face hideous reality scenes (e.g. the kid forcibly getting his eyes burned out so he could make more money for his orphan-pimping boss) with the freakishly happy nearly fantasy ending. It left me asking, “…really?” with narrowed eyes. But I guess the whole point of the movie was about destiny, not about the unpleasant rationality and probabilities of the real world. It was just an odd combination for me.
At the end of the day, I’d say definitely worth watching.
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et tu, brutus? :)
ReplyDeleteI suppose your reservations mean you're not as in love with this movie as everyone else.
But still, I need to restate for the record that I was not someone in your surroundings that was peeing themselves after seeing this film.
I watched this recently as well, and I agree, I thought it was good but not great.
ReplyDeleteA lot of the feedback I had heard about it was about how honest yet shocking some of the scenes were. I guess I just wasn't as surprised, and therefore not as moved? Who knows. I loved that little boy trying to take a dump though.
Were you with me and Ellen the day in IKEA when the woman in line in front of us loudly and emphatically exclaimed that "Slumdog Millionaire is the best movie ever made?"
ReplyDeleteWe were discussing seeing it, about a week after it first came out. Ellen asked what it was about. I remember responding that I had no idea, all I knew was that it was made by the same guy who did Trainspotting so that was enough to interest me. Then the woman standing in line behind us starting raving about how friggin great Slumdog Millionaire was for like the next 5 minutes. It was intensely awkward. She kept insisting we HAD to see it. I believe we all elected not to see it after that.
I did eventually see it when it came out on dvd. Cause hey, it won best picture, so it can't be that bad. I have a tendency to block out the Academy's penchant for selecting decent, agreeable movies over anything challenging or inventive. And that's what it was. Decent. Agreeable. Nothing mind-blowing, but a pleasant enough viewing experience. At least it wasn't Crash.
@Alla
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember your skepticism well. You kept talking about how it wasn't that different from /Salam Bombay/ and how it was getting too overrated for its own good. :)
@Bettina
I felt the same way about the supposedly hyper graphic scenes. Perhaps I have become desensitized by the likes of movies that feature grim scenes of hideousness.
@ Michelle
Ha ha ha, my only memory of /Crash/ was that I went to see it but had to leave halfway through when I came down with an episode of a hugely unpleasant three day stomach flu that landed me in the ER. I would never even consider watching it all the way through because of that.