A disappointed fan...

Rating: 2/10 (26 August 2009)

Many reviews you will read here claim that this is a return to form for Tarantino...
I went into this film absolutely open minded and ready to be entertained, the first 'Chapter' is certainly promising with it's taut tension and fantastic climax...
sadly its a wobbly roller-coaster all downhill from there...despite some excellent performances (though i hardly think Brad Pitt in 'boofhead / Burn After Reading mode qualifies as one of them), but the tension builds and dissipates unevenly, even the standout scenes such as the cellar and cinema climax. Part of the problem is there's just SO MUCH going on, a subtext on both films and violence,knowing references to other war, spaghetti western, European art and exploitation films that Basterds is a twitchy and uneven mess despite some wonderful moments.
The plot is two converging but extremely predictable lines, and in a sense that is one of the problems, often we know whats going to happen and don't care much when we get there...this is a marked contrast to the snappy editing and craft on display in his earlier films.
The titular Basterds themselves (please dummies who question the intentional spelling need to watch closer!) are not much more than a weak half baked exploitation ensemble/distraction/ device from the main action with our heroine whose own plot seems to career to a predictable campy end...we hardly 'know her' enough to feel much in amidst the heavy handed 'cleverness' of the final cinema scenes...
Personally i did not find the film very violent compared to most, and that's more to do with the uneven suspense I think...it will be interesting to see how time treats this film. Perhaps I'll grow to love it, though i hardly feel compelled to see it again.
My gut feeling is critics are praising it more for the heavy handed cinematic subtext and Kubrick-esquire attempts at humor - however lame. It's never completely boring during it's 2 hour plus duration, nor is it very compelling or involving... It's also possible younger cinema fans feel like they're discovering Tarantino for themselves...hopefully they'll do a little more exploring to discover that this is a much weaker effort than his previous work.
Go in with extremely low expectations..or just go next door to District 9 for a real hoot..