Very nice looking, lacking substance

Rating: 6/10 (3 June 2013)

First of all let me get this out of the way. The film is visually stunning, and I personally - without normally listening or enjoying this kind of music - liked the sound side of things as well. Mainly because it was a different take on this, which makes it somewhat fresh. The party scenes went on for way too long, though - even my two female companions got tired of watching the clothes.
What I found lacking was the narrative and the pacing. It starts off with a lot introductions, and then we simply don't learn a lot about the characters. The back story of Gatsby is simply showed in a brief (quite oddly placed, in my opinion) segment, and then you kinda forget it because it really didn't feel so significant. And all the magic surrounding Gatsby is lost instantly. Since the movie is called "The Great Gatsby", I'd figured there'd be some kind of mystery, and with the voice-over it'd be in the right lane for a "film-noir" detective feel. Nick Carraway is obviously intrigued by this whole thing, but he simply feels like a silent bystander. You also don't really get a personal feel of Gatsby - everybody's saying he's a great guy, the most amazing, honest person in the world, but in movies it should really be "show, don't tell".
All in all the first half of the film feels impersonal, and quite frictionless. The second half is a lot better. The hotel scene builds a little tension (though not much considering how substantial the disclosures are), and after Tom's lover gets run down, you actually feel like someone might lose something in this film. The tragic ending is actually great, and you actually felt (for) Gatsby. Daisy's actions are fairly hard to understand, but considering that you basically get to know nothing about her in the movie, I guess it's not really anything you can get worked up over.
All in all, it's not a bad movie as such. It's visually fantastic, but the plot feels elongated, and most of the people you're introduced to have no real impact on the story. Watch it if you want a visual experience, but don't expect much else.