Did I miss something?

Rating: 4/10 (2 March 2010)

Did I end up seeing a different movie than everyone else? I was shocked when I saw that Scorsese had directed this (I was unaware.) I think was by far his worst movie.
The story line had great potential - once you "know" what really happened at the end. I thought the execution of the film was poor.
The middle of the movie positively DRAGGED. I felt like I was watching Di Caprio and Winslet in Titanic, escaping from near death as the water rises - FIVE times in a row. I couldn't wait for the end.
The end of the movie was needless to say muddled, which is probably intentional. We're meant to to REALLY know what happened. Was he crazy? Was he not? Was he poisoned and committed to protect the secrets of the island? Was he really an inmate undergoing a radical therapy? I can appreciate the film noir quality of the ending. It's just by that time I didn't care.
There were lots of great clues along the way that don't make any sense at the time. But at the end when you look back they make sense (the blood from his wife's midsection when he's holding her ghost the first time.) And the idea behind a story like this is to make all of those clues fit the "real" story. Like explaining why they had to give up their guns at the gate. And why the guards were looking at them so strangely when they first arrived on the island.
What doesn't make sense to me is the opening sequence on the boat. Why is that part of the story? If you're going to try out this radical new theory, and you have to "start" Teddy off in his fantasy somewhere (where he departs from the reality of being an inmate and starts the fantasy of being a Marshal investigating the escape), then why not just have him start off on the dock (as if he just arrived.) It has to start somewhere - you can't go back indefinitely. The opening sequence just doesn't fit the "real" story - only the "fantasy." I was VERY disappointed in the execution of the film as a whole.
I wasn't alone either. Someone behind me muttered "Scorsese needs a lobotomy" as the credits rolled.
I couldn't help but laugh and agree.