Some parts are okay but a lot was confusing and boring

Rating: 5/10 (17 January 2016)

I didn't enjoy this movie that much even though I was interested in the subject matter. I think it was just that how these people shorted the market isn't that interesting an aspect of the crisis. It's technical and boring. There were some good points here and there.
The good points first: The little explanations of the toxic products were illuminating. The way the main protagonists found out about the depth of the crisis was also entertaining. There are some interesting moments like how S&P gave out their AAA rankings.
The bad points: The main characters are just not very interesting to make a movie about and you don't feel for any of them or understand what they are talking about for a lot of the movie. Christian Bale's character was kind of uninteresting. The wake you up strippers and music were kind of daft and spoiled the tone. The conflict that Steve Carrell's character or Brad Pitt's character felt about making money from the crisis wasn't very genuine.
There are 2 movies about the financial crisis that are much better about the crisis itself: the HBO movie "Too Big to Fail" and the excellent "Margin Call". I understand that "The Big Short" wasn't trying to tell the same story and it was showing things from the POV of these people who shorted. It may have the nominations and the A list movie stars but it ranks below both of the above in terms of clarity and entertainment value.