Overrated

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2009)

It's never good to watch a movie with great expectations. Either you just get what you waited for anyway or you are completely disappointed. Well, what's wrong with Slumdog Millionaire? Maybe I shouldn't have read anything about it before watching - but as it won so many Oscars, it's hard not to find out anything about it. So the storyline was clear - some poor boy from the Mumbai slums gets the opportunity to win a lot of money. And the movie somehow has to point out how it is actually possible for somebody who dropped out of school as a child to know all these answers.
Well, the acting is fine and you really get to know the main character. It's hard not to like him. The music's good, the antagonists are as bad as you'd wish them to be. So it's about the plot. Slumdog Millionaire is a modern-day Indian fairytale. Everything works out for Jamal. Don't get me wrong, that's all right - Jamal has the amount of luck of an action movie hero (be it in "Die Hard" or in "Taken"). But they normally aren't rewarded any Oscars.
The Academy Awards Jury seemingly longs for happy endings. But this one got so many Oscars because it's a movie that gives you a good feeling. From rags to riches, and besides finding the girl of your dreams - all of this happening in India with its social problems. Some of those Oscars are symbolic for the message you might want to receive from the movie. Everyone can be a winner. But that's cinema. A real-life "Die Hard" wouldn't have had an happy ending. It's fiction and you gotta accept it. Maybe some people don't wanna accept that and thus rate Slumdog Millionaire this good.
For me it's nothing but a pretty enjoyable drama. But an overrated one.