Very good through most of it, but novelty wears thin through second half!

Rating: 7/10 (4 January 2009)

I enjoyed this film but do think it was rather long winded. It was pretty cheesy in places and almost too well done if you know what i mean.
As you would expect the acting was flawless.
The special effects were incredible.
The idea is genius.
The story is a bit too long and kind of predictable, not that there's much to predict.
I think the message could have been expressed within 2 hours and being longer kind of ruined the film for me, however being the whole story of someones life, you can't complain too much.
Put the effects and idea aside and you don't have too much of a spectacular film, I wouldn't want to see this one winning too many awards. I have seen some much more interesting and better films in the last month and wouldn't put this one up there.
As Benjamin gets younger the story gets less interesting and the novelty wears off, you can see where the story is going and I personally felt a bit annoyed knowing I would have to watch another hour of it. I wasn't exactly going to stop before the end, mainly because I wanted to see how they would make Brad Pitt look like a teenager but the message had been made and the story had pretty much been told.
All round, this is a watchable film and definitely worth going to see, but certainly not one of the better ones this winter, and most definitely not worth being in the top 250 on here (as it currently is)
I'd rate it a 7.5