Yesterday was mostly an amazingly fun day. David and I spent the sunny afternoon all over town doing some very fun things (which I’ll get to presently) but our evening activity took place at the ArcLight Theater in Hollywood, CA were we attended a showing of the new film Shutter Island. Based on the creepiness of the trailer, I thought it would be worth seeing … and David really wanted to see it so we had high hopes that it would be good. David kinda liked it and I, on the other hand, did not:
From the get-go, the movie did not grab me and, in fact, only succeeded in annoying me. The horrible misuse of music (the pounding, blaring noise that tried to set the tone) and the even horribler accents used by almost all of the actors (especially Leonardo DiCaprio, who I kept expecting to utter the phrase Turn out da lights, Mugsy with his ridiculous Boston accent) made it difficult for me to focus on the story. Once I finally did focus on the story, I found it a terribly unbelievable jumble of confusing mess that never really came together … not even at the end when you finally realize what is going on. Considering that this was a Martin Scorsese film, I was very surprised at how little was spent on the special effects … and this is not an FX film. Not even the digitized water in the background of many of the scenes looked believable. They should’ve spent the money they didn’t use on FX for the writers. The only acting performances I enjoyed came from Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow … and only barely. They are fantastic actors but they were totally wasted on this messy film. I’m certain there will be many comments below in the dissent but I honestly felt that Shutter Island was terrible. It wasn’t the worse movie I’ve ever seen but I’m deffo of the mind that poor Alfred Hitchcock, whom Scorsese was trying to pay homage to, is turning in his grave :(
But, as I said, the rest of yesterday was very fun … fun that I’ll talk about in the next post :)
I have to agree with you. I saw the film on Friday night and was utterly disappointed. I’d been looking forward to seeing this movie for months..save your money, people.
I heard this film is no good! It looks awesome too. I saw Percey Jackson and the lighting theif…I really enjoyed that movie!! I highly recommend it!
Instead ya’ll should see The Wolfman, Its pretty good, I was pleasantly surprised considering I was dragged to see it by my boyfriend!
I saw both “Shutter Island” and “Percy Jackson” and I enjoyed both. I really liked Shutter Island and from what I hear, the story is pretty true to the novel. While I, too, found Leo’s “boston” accent annoying and I thought the music was trying TOO hard to Hitchcock-ish, I all-in-all enjoyed myself in “Shutter Island”. Different strokes I guess.
I saw this movie on the weekend and was left EXTREMELY disappointed. There were too many ongoing storylines, and the acting was less than superior! Total fail!!
I didn’t think it was all that horrible. Although, I didn’t have really high expectations going in so that might explain it. Not great. Not detestable. Just alright.
I didn’t like the movie at all!!! Leonardo was terrible in it!! I agree with you on Max Von Sydow…but he is always good!!
I was totally disturbed by this movie–whether that means I liked it or disliked it –Im not sure. As a mother, I was way creeped out-the scenes with the kids were not even IN the trailer! So to judge whether or not you want to see this movie based on the trailer alone-a bit disingenuious. I get that Scorsese was trying for that 50s film noir horror flick–I’m just not sure if he succeeded
Agree 5 trillion percent! I was so disappointed in this movie. I saw the “twist” coming way ahead of time which in itself is pretty sad because I never see the twist coming lol. But even without that, it was simply not a good movie. We were trying to decide between Shutter Island and Wolfman, and we obviously made a bad choice.
if you dont read the book you will NOT get the movie…i read the book and thought the movie was alright..but i can see how it could be confusing to someone who didnt read it.
Really? I actually enjoyed it. Leo’s Bostonian accent was bad, but all in all, I liked how I didn’t know where the story was going and I certainly didn’t expect that ending! I was entertained :)
You guys are crazy.
This movie was brilliant! The acting was phenomenal, and the writing was good.
If you didn’t understand the plot, or how it all comes together, I can understand why you hated it. This movie requires constant attention as missing a detail can throw it all off. Whether that’s a positive or negative is another argument, but it was a great movie if you understood the plot.
The effects, however, were terrible. The water looked horribly fake, and I was like “Are we in 2010? Is this how far we’ve come?”. I honestly had to think about how other movies portrayed water, and it’s just Shutter Island’s horrible effects.
Overall, good movie. Definitely a better pick than Wolfman =)
@Alias — No no, I understood it. I actually figured it out when we saw the note about the “Rule of 4, Who is number 67″. UGH, I’ve heard bad things about ‘Wolfman’, too. I’m saving my pennies for ‘Alice in Wonderland’ now ;D
Shutter Island wasn’t what I was expecting it to be, but I still thought it was pretty good. You’re right on the Boston accent though. I snickered to myself every time Leo said, “I’ma federal mawwshawwl.”
I agree on some counts- I HATED the ending. I know it was the original book’s ending, but I felt it was a massive cop out.
But I have to disagree with you on the actor’s performances. I thought they all did excellent jobs. And the special effects weren’t bad either. I didn’t notice poor quality of any kind.
I really wanted to see this movie, when it was supposed to be released months ago…then they pushed back the release date (repeatedly, I think) and I gave it up for a bad job- looks like that was the right choice.
I completely agree Trent! I thought the whole thing was bogus. Right on!
It was interesting. It was a movie I would’ve probably rented in the future but decided to actually fork 9 bucks out for.
Oh balls! I thought this movie looked so amazing. The last movie I saw in theaters was Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and before that was Disturbia. I’m saving my money for Alice in Wonderland at this point.
Yeah Trent I have to agree with you on this one. I saw this movie on Friday as well and about half way thru I figured out the “twist” at the end. Very disappointed. The acting was atrocious as well. I hope I never again have to see Leo “cry” on camera. ugh. Just badly put together.
I didn’t mind Shutter Island at all! Though it wasn’t as suspenseful or “thrilling” as I had expected I found myself thinking about it over and over the next day and I thought the acting was great. Loved the music too. I guess we were looking for different things.