Whats all the shouting about?

Rating: 3/10 (11 September 2007)

I doubt this is going to help anyone make up their mind about this film. To be honest this isn't really a review but more a commentary on a film that several friends have insisted is one of the great movies of all time. I've tried to come up with something to say about the film, other than its not very good, but have had trouble since I saw it in doing so. To that end I've decided to write about that, about not being able to find the words and why.
I finally sat down to watch this film after several years of people grabbing me and insisting I see this film. Some wanted to share the dark "wondrous" experience others wanted me to take a crack at explaining the film to them. Some where along the way I picked up the directors cut and put it away until recently when I popped it and gave it ago.
Its been a week or so since I've seen this film and I'm still wondering what it was I saw. To be certain its a unique vision of strangeness concerning the odd visions of a young man who is haunted by person in a twisted bunny suit urging him to do things in order to save the world. But outside of the strangeness I don't see this as the be all and end all or even the very good movie that some people seem to think the film is. For me this is way way way too long film thats weird for the sake of weird. For me its an angsty young kid trying to deal with change by creating a "fantasy world" of doom and gloom. What so different about that from real life? Forgive me I just don't care for the film. Its not that I don't get it, but the two plus hour march to the downbeat conclusion was almost too much for me to take. I kept wanting to scream at the film "get on with it" until I'd realize that I had the DVD controller next to me and I'd scan to the next scene.
What is it about this film that draws people in? I can't say. Perhaps I'm the wrong audience for this film, having been raised on the films of David Lynch, Jodorowsky and Bunuel where strange is a way of life not a means of getting your film noticed. Even the ending, which has echoes of other films didn't strike me as anything special.
Perhaps if I had stumbled upon this unaware I might have liked it, but mostly I'm left wondering if thats all there is.