Welcome to Baz Luhrmann fantasy world.

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2013)

I think that people have either not seen Luhrmann's other work or are not considering this film in context.
If you love the book and feel that it's the "great American novel" then you'll have little chance of liking this film. Why, it's simple Baz Luhrmann has always setup his films as fantasies. Whilst I haven't seen every film that he has made the four that I have all start with you the viewer entering through the red curtains or in this case the art deco gates into his world. This is not the world of F Scott Fitzgerald it's Baz Luhrmann's world and viewers shouldn't be surprised that a director that reinterpreted William Shakespeare would do the same with FSF.
Once you understand that you're in his world or in other words his dream it's not surprising that the film has the feel of Motion Captor or that he dreams with a modern sound track or ever that he starts and finishes the film in black & white. To complain about Baz's style is like complaining that Hitchcock used cameras in the ceilings or that Busby Buckeley's choreography couldn't have been seen by the audience within the film but only the people in the real life cinema. Some directors have a signature style and you either like it or you don't but you can't expect a Merchant/Ivory film faithful to a novel from a dreamer.
I liked this film because it's Luhrmann's style, it's "what's on the outside of the can is what you get". However I also would point out that like so many films this years it's to long and whilst the 3D didn't bother me greatly I'm yet to see value in the extra $7.00 a ticket.
Finally I think that I should point out that I have read the book twice and seen the 1970"s version of the novel and I have never understood why people like this story. Yes it may captor the rich at a unique time in history in a similar way as Jane Austin did in Britain within her time but I strongly dislike Daisy & Gatsby as they are both pathetically weak individuals which I just wish people would stop making films about. Maybe a film about how Gatsby made his money would be more rewarding. Now that would be a gangster film and we'd need Martin Scorsese to direct.