This movie is overrated

Rating: 7/10 (21 July 2018)

The Fight Club movie, like its more successful but equally troubled cousin The Matrix, has some philosophical themes, originality in presentation, and is also strong on satire. Another movie that it is similar in some ways is vastly superior and more intelligent and fun American Psycho. The plot is adapted from the eponymous book, which "borrows" ideas from Dostoevsky's "The Double" and puts some "Thus spoke Zarathustra" along a way. It is derivative and not very good, certainly not as good as its cult followers would suggest. In any case, given the hype, I was expecting more. There are some good points along the way - especially its anticipation of terrorism, and some good transformational scenes, like when confronting a boss, but overall, it comes across as much more shallow than its reputation would suggest. It is high on style and influence, has lot of ideas crammed in and it might have been even revolutionary in some respects for its time (like the Matrix, which I also find a bit missing), so perhaps its worth a watch, but it is not a perfect masterpiece some assume it is. It may seem so to perhaps teens, incels and millenials, but this is not the most successful nor sophisticated rendering of such ideas. Tone your expectations down, give it a try, this is a movie that can work in bits and pieces, has originality, but is sometimes given WAY too much credit.