One of the most empty viewing experiences I've ever had.

Rating: 3/10 (24 February 2009)

There are several nice technology tests in Button. There's also some nice makeup and cinematography.
Sadly, there is no protagonist, antagonist, story, anything. Benjamin gets younger. And he meets up with Cate every now and then.
I can only express how truly empty this exercise is by using SPOILERS: So ~ here there be spoilers...
Brad is somehow born an old man. This neither will be questioned or explained.
Soon Brad is a walking around and there's the wonderful gimmick of "hey, they digitally shoved Brad's face on an old guy's body!" Been done plenty of times before, the last Indian Jones saved Harrison Ford from quite a bit of heavy stunt work by digitally pasting his face on stuntmen. But Indy didn't age backwards so I guess it didn't warrant the attention.
Soon Brad meets a little girl ~ there is no chemistry but never mind, this is the start of the relationship for the entire 3 hours. This is the first movie that has made Cate Blanchet boring. I didn't know that was possible. Her scenes (not her fault, it's the screenplay and direction) grinded the movie into more of a halt than I thought possible.
And I can now wrap up the rest of the movie: Brad keeps getting younger and bumps in the the girl, who is getting older. They don't talk about much nor experience much, just wistfully look at each other like they're filming "Gone With The Wind". The scene with the most action (I'm not talking action as in explosions but where something happens of some sort of consequence) was the boat scene. Benjamin's character passively watches the whole thing happen. Like every other scene. Oh yeah, there a bit character who's flashbacks show the several times he got struck by lightening. I'm not sure if those were supposed to be funny or what, got old after a bit...
The end of Button makes Spielberg's "A.I." and the final "Lord of the Rings" look like some of the greatest film endings of all time. I ran for the exit at the start of some sort of montage.
For reference: a couple of my favorite films are "Barry Lyndon" and "Grapes of Wrath" so it's not like I'm a Michael Bay fan expecting something else. I just wanted a well told story with some interesting scenes and compelling characters. Button didn't not offer one moment of interest for me.