Boring and Prententious

Rating: 1/10 (7 July 2007)

Thought the movie was boring, pretentious, and predicable. Many elements of the artsy-fartsy stuff were cliché (for example: the silent walking scene with Tom - until he almost gets hit by a car, the inverted swing around camera-work when Tom rides the horse by/ drives the car by) I couldn't get myself to care for any of the characters: wasn't drawn in to Tom's plight; Tom and Izzy's love for each other just didn't seem to resonate. Somewhere at about the half-point of this movie, I decided that Keanu Reeves (with that slightly confused look of his) would work better than Hugh Jackman.
I hate to say it, but I felt more sadness when the Autobot Jazz was torn in half by Megatron than when Izzy died. I actually wanted Izzy to die as soon as possible because I knew that would indicate that the end of the movie was near.
I couldn't stand the way Aronofsky frames his shots - too claustrophobic - maybe because he was on a small budget and had to tighten down in smallish sets? I thought his tight framing on faces was just totally out of place - that sort of style works better on action heroes - i.e. Bruce Willis in Armageddon.
Just way too artsy-fartsy for me. Don't get me wrong, I like art films. I pretty much swallow up almost anything by Wim Wenders. French films can be slow moving, but they certainly aren't pretentious like this one.
No wonder the big studios pulled-out when they first started filming in Australia in 2002. Aronfosky is a mediocre director who just over-extended himself on this one.
This is one of the worst pieces of crap that I have ever seen.
Sorry if I have upset anyone.