The Boring Case of Benjamin Button

Rating: 6/10 (25 December 2008)

Let me come out and say this, I went into this movie with extremely high hopes. The second trailer simply floored me when I saw it and I worship at the alter this is Fight Club. I'm a big fan of Fincher's previous movies, even Zodiac, which I thought was a good effort but not a great movie. Maybe my high expectations were the reason I wound up dissatisfied with this film, and if that is so then you can call me biased but I walked out of the movie theater today (Christmas) tired and disappointed.
The movie itself isn't bad and it's stunning visually. The problem lies in it's run time, the movie is bloated to say the least. Entire subplots including a clockmaker creating a clock that ran backwards and Kate Blanchet's character on her deathbed in New Orleans during the onset of Hurricane Katrina could have been removed entirely. I feel that had this movie ran forty-five minutes shorter I would have enjoyed it more. Run time issues aside the movie was very well done but it failed to hit the emotional notes I was hoping a movie declared by many as one of the best of the year would have. But then again, maybe I went into it hoping for too much.