I really can't see how this is 8+

Rating: 3/10 (30 September 2014)

I'm giving this a 3 because I gave Boyhood a 2 and I think this movie deserves slightly better.
I gave Boyhood a 2 because I come from China and I know what "abysmal" means and I wanted to separate Boyhood from those films that actually deserved absolute trash.
But that's it. That's the only reason this film is getting the extra 2 points from me.
Honestly I'm losing faith in IMDb and rotten tomatoes and all critics and the general audience. How do people give such high scores for such pretentious and empty films?
I'm NOT one of the people who think that visually pleasing films are the best. However, I think people who would back any "indie" film and attack the ones disagreeing as shallow and ignorant are equally annoying. I don't think there's any superiority in genre. And concluding "you must be one of those that love Transformers" is a pretty weak arguing point.
Anyway, rants aside, I think this movie is extremely childish and unrealistic. The story kinda parallels Twilight and 50 Shades, only it made the fantasy ride on a tragedy to seem more deep and mature. It really makes me wonder how much the authors of these books experienced in life to have came up such unrealistic crap.
Terminal cancer patients don't behave or look like this. Oh gosh this is so disturbing to me... Couldn't they have picked somebody else for the actors? Cancer patients don't look this healthy. Gus was one that needed to lose a limb, but still had that healthy skin and beefy body, huh? Even the CGI for the prosthesis was so fake. I guess his shin was just too bulky to make it look like it was just a stick underneath the pants.
Haley's character was really unlikable. The girl had more negativity and aloofness than Bella from Twilight, plus she liked to get all deep and talk about some philosophy that the pretentious teenagers love. I was totally wondering where Gus got all that stuff he talked about in his final love letter. How did you see this girl as all those good qualities anyway? I had minimal impression of her being smart or caring.
Gus was unreal. The philosophy was incredibly naive and pretentious. His way of dealing with things were childish. The way people responded weren't much real either. I mean, you give THAT speech at a middle aged lady and she LETS you throw eggs at her car and house? And all that applauding when they kissed? I'm surprised they even let Haley continue climbing. And yeah, a virgin that's about to die has that much confidence in landing girls who don't even want to talk, huh? Also, even putting the character aside, the actor had very bad acting skills for a lead.
This movie makes no sense. Was it written by a 15 year old? I can forgive someone that age for thinking this is good philosophy and realistic love and a good story.
Oh wait the movie wasn't all naive and pretentious. The writer was a character with some dimensions, and the writer had a good point. But they made the writer such an asshole that it was impossible to redeem him or explain his reason in the end.
In all, just a very naive and unrealistic movie with pretentious philosophies and childish fantasies.