Disappointing and Disjointed

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2013)

Firstly, let me say that I'm not trying to hate on this film. The cast and director are all established and talented, and the story of "The Great Gatsby" is brilliant. I am not someone who is obsessed with the previous films or hold a staunch upper lip against tweaking the original story (to an extent). When I walked in to the movie theater I wasn't expecting a masterpiece, or a disaster, and I received neither. Overall, however, the film was lacking in what should have been a great tale with a great ensemble.
Don't get me wrong, as usual DiCaprio plays his character well, and the same can be said for Edgerton, Mulligan and Maguire(although some may disagree). However the side characters aren't great, Jordan is rarely seen, and the same can be said for Fisher and Clarke's characters who would have done their characters more justice had they more screen time. These are just nit pickings.
The greater concern lies with Story, cinematography, and feel of the movie. The soundtrack, although containing fantastic songs, do not belong in this movie, and when they come on, they're out of place. As for the set and props, there is almost too much "flash" which I would have found hard to achieve in the first place. And the cinematography, like the music was out of place. It was good, yet just didn't fit in with this kind of story and felt overdone.
I think the two biggest disappointments were the rearrangement of key plot points (or their absence), and that the whole thing was quite dumbed down.For example, the discovery of Gatsby's past was revealed way too early in the film taking away the mystery of the man and the funeral scene was pretty much scrapped with no appearance from his father like the book. Also, the addition of having the whole story told by Nick in a flashback while he's in a sanatorium was bit much and unnecessary.
As for the dumbing down. All the meaning of each metaphor in the book are basically told to you or made as blatant as possible. I just felt by doing this that the movie was dumbing down it's audience a bit too much.
All in all, the cast made a good attempt, while I believe the director took many wrong turns.
Many people claim that I am being too critical and that it was a decent film. And they're right, it was a decent film, but it wasn't Gatsby, and it could have (and should have) been so much more, especially with a cast like that, and the amount of money that was funneled into it