Boring and Gimmicky

Rating: 3/10 (20 November 2010)

After watching "127 hours" by Danny Boyle, I felt like I'd seen nothing. That should not be the case. The movie is way too light for the subject matter. It comes across more like a series of loosely connected commercials or music videos. It's very hard to get into Aron's head. The camera work is way too flashy. The sound work is over-the-top and irritating to the point of getting a headache. What is most puzzling is that they thought the story warranted so much visual/sound nonsense.
The gimmicks ruined whatever good stuff the movie could have had. At the end, I felt hollow and annoyed, like I just had a very empty movie experience. A lot of the time, I was really bored, which should not be happening in such a short feature.
Last but not least, the product placement in this movie was some of the most blatant/obvious I've ever seen in a Hollywood flick, everything from McDonald's to Canon to Gatorade to Burger King and so on. That really turned me off. For just the the basic story (otherwise this movie is a total "waste of time"), I give it 3/10.