Not good, not terrible

Rating: 5/10 (11 May 2013)

First off, my biggest complaint is how they changed the narration of the story unnecessarily. Throughout the movie, the real story, the story involving Gatsby and Nick and Daisy, is continually interrupted by Nick later on at a psychiatric ward—something that wasn't in the book. Nick being at a psychiatric ward was entirely made up the director, and as it doesn't contribute anything to the movie, I honestly can't see why they put it in there. Now, I can understand how they might want to change up the story to make it different and fresh, but this narration "story within a story" technique added nothing to the movie and only served as an annoying break from the real plot.
I also got the feeling they were trying to "modernize" a lot of the story, especially with their choice of soundtrack, but most of the time came across as anachronistic. Of course, it is not a bad thing at all to have songs from out of the time period. But there are so many more appropriate, actual 1920s songs they could have picked for the movie, that they would have gotten across the theme of partying and excess a hundred times better.
However, the cast and acting was good. Leonardo DiCaprio and Toby Maguire played their roles pretty well, and there wasn't a moment in the movie that I felt that they should have picked another actor for their parts. Every character in the movie is how I could have imaged a character from the book.
The movie just tries too hard. It hits you over the head with symbols like the green light and the optometry billboard that should have way more subtle. Several scenes are overdramatized, with tons of effects and music and overacting thrown in there that it makes the viewer dizzy.
It was very over stylized. Words fly around the screen in a few scenes in line with the actors' dialogue, which just looks more silly than anything else. It felt like they were trying to replace any actual meaning of the book with glitzy parties and (albeit stunning) visual effects. It wasn't a bad movie, but it could have been way better done.