Moralizing and more predictable than it is made out to be

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2012)

I have two problems with this movie. Firstly, it badly wants to convey a message about consumerism, evil corporations, the shallowness of modern society, and all the things that that phony guy in college used to talk about while wearing expensive brands and a $100 haircut and generally making way too much of an effort trying to look like he just doesn't give a sh*t. Unsurprisingly, it's exactly that sort of people who tend to evangelize about this movie and how profound it is.
Secondly, these same people will also insist on telling you how surprised they were with the ending and how clever they thought it was. Don't get me wrong, it's not super obvious, but as twist endings go it's pretty vanilla. It's a bit like the appearance of twins in any mystery story (you know the reveal will involve them swapping identities at some stage) crossed with the age-old "it was all a dream". Anyone who pays attention to these things I give about a 50% chance of guessing it before the end (or 90% if you know there is a twist).
So the message is laid on a bit too thick and the ending not mind- blowing. Big deal, right? Indeed, these are no big vices, but the problem is that the film and its following are so infatuated with themselves that they lead one to expect something between artistic genius and an article of faith. The fact that (understandably) it is neither makes the movie disappointing, which it otherwise might not have been.