Exactly like Forrest Gump in every way

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2008)

They were written by the SAME PERSON!!! So, each being similar in subject matter and theme, the two films play out almost identically.
The overall plot structure in Benjamin Button is the same as in Gump. The film opens with a very old woman in the hospital telling her life story to her daughter, in the same way that Forrest sits on the bench and tells his. She has in her possession the journal of Benjamin Button and when the daughter starts reading each section the action cuts back to then, the overall story being one about one humble man experiencing the 20th Century in the United States while he and his heart's desire cross paths over and over again. I guess it works well enough as a framing device, but in terms of entertainment, Button is just not as fun and Forrest Gump. Both films try to add humor with a bunch of non-sequitur stuff, like, for example, an old man describing all the times he was struck by lightning (accompanied by intentionally ghetto film of it, because apparently someone followed him around his whole life and filmed him and just HAPPENED to film him when he was struck), and its just not funny after a while. This film is more intent on moving you with images and movement than Forrest Gump was.
This is a really long movie, and its mostly enjoyable but MAN it drags in certain spots. Also, it spends its greatest moment 5 minutes in, in which a scene from WWI is played backwards (you've probably seen this in the trailers). When i saw that i thought that nothing could possibly be better, and i was right.
The effects and the films look are great though. They did a great job making brad pitt look really old, but also making him look 15 years younger. The same goes for cate blanchett but i think that was just traditional makeup on her, instead of the fancy computer stuff on brad.
Overall, it was OK. I felt really weird being there in the theater because the last hour is a pure brad pitt ogling-fest, but looking back the effects and detail in the movie are really great and make it worth seeing.