The top six most overrated things from Hollywood and the pop culture uniiverse: 2008 edition

When I made my list of the 12 most overrated things in movies for 2007, I knew that I wanted to do this for each year following. Unfortunately, one way or another, I kept getting distracted, and instead of posting such a list during or shortly after Awards Season, I now find myself making my list at long last. This one is only half as long as the list for 2007. But does that mean that 2008 was a better year for film and pop culture than 2007? Not exactly. But regardless of which year was better or worse, 2008 somehow managed to provide fewer things worthy of being on this list. What are they? Some of the picks may surprise you, especially the first one. So, without further delay, here are:

The Top 6 Most Overrated Films, Performances, and Pop Culture Sensations of 2008:

6. The Dark Knight: I’ve said it before and I’ll gladly say it again: I love Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight”. The direction, the editing, the acting, the whole nine yards. So why would I put my recently decided favorite film of 2008 on this list? It comes down to one word: fanboys. Rabid, psychotic, blinded fanboys. It’s one thing to be really passionate about a film that you love. Why shouldn’t you be? But there are limits, and the hardcore Dark Knight fanboys crossed the line many times. Crime #1? Labeling the film as one of, if not THE greatest film/s EVER made. While I understand how this could be a person’s first reaction (it’s a larger than life, overwhelming movie), on closer inspection, the label of “One of the greatest EVER” is a bit much (though apparently that never bothered Ben Lyons…). If you want to call it one of your favorites, that’s fine, but when you immediately dismiss the countless other brilliant films from this decade alone, it’s easy to think that you’ve got a screw or two loose. Really, my only complaint is Bale’s Batman voice, but it’s still a complaint. No movie, not one, as hard as that is to believe, is perfect. There may not be glaring flaws, but rest assured, no matter how easy they may be to miss or ignore, in some way, they’re there. But the lowest moment of Dark Knight fandom actually wasn’t the superlative labels. Nope, it was the madness that ensued after it failed to snag a Best Picture nom. Now, in a way, I was right there with some of the crazies, but to claim that this one instance totally INVALIDATES the Oscars? The Joker himself would probably cackle and say “Why so serious?” at such lunacy. Plenty of great movies have gotten the shaft when it came to nomination time, and The Dark Knight just happens to be the latest member of that unfortunate circle. Even so, it still scored EIGHT nominations, and WON two of those, including Ledger’s richly deserved award. Instead of gritting their teeth and recognizing the remarkable achievement it was for a comic book movie to do THIS WELL in awards season, the hardcore wackos simply went overboard, trashing all of the best picture nominees, or at least going overboard in finding faults with them. Nothing suffered more than The Reader, which, in retrospect, was probably the film that got The Dark Knight’s spot, if we assume it got the sixth most votes from Academy voters, and while I don’t think The Reader should have been in the lineup, there are limits to how far one goes in trashing a film in blind rage. Instead of being supportive but also respectful, the fanboys gave the rest of us who loved The Dark Knight a bad name that we’re still trying to get rid of. It’s a level of chaos that the Joker himself would have been proud of…and that’s not a good thing.

5. The Disastrous Duo: Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button": Okay, the word “disastrous” is a bit much, but I was in the mood for some alliteration. So why did I pick these two performances from one of the most unfortunately popular best picture nominees in recent years? Because they fell totally flat. Let’s start with Pitt. In my Inglourious Basterds review, I criticized Pitt for being cartoony and not blending into the movie. In Benjamin Button, it’s the exact opposite problem.Yes, Benjamin is supposed to be something of an “observer”; he doesn’t cause things to happen, things happen to and around him or people he knows. But even so, did Pitt have to be SO bland? He barely, if ever changed expressions (and the subtlety excuse won’t work here), transforming a protagonist saddled with a compelling psychological and physical dilemma into a central figure who, frankly, is rather boring. Not a good thing for a film that runs close to three hours. As for Ms. Henson, she actually gets a range of emotions to display, but there’s no nuance. This sort of role may have been acceptable in the days of “Gone with the Wind” and Butterfly McQueen, but in today’s world? Not so much. The worst part is when Benjamin returns home, to discover that Queenie is dead. It would have been meaningful, but we’re learning about the death of a cardboard cut out character and seeing the reactions of a bland protagonist. Not exactly movie magic. And yet somehow these two got nominations over the much better Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and even Julia Ormond who barely had anything to do. Something is rotten in the land of Hollywood.

4. "Wanted": I had a feeling that Wanted would develop a fanbase in the weeks after its release. After all, it plays like the mentally deficient offspring of Fight Club and the Matrix. So why is it on here? Because, astoundingly, the critics liked it too, which baffles me. Despite a few good, tongue in cheek scenes, everything else is either totally over the top or ridiculously DUMB and inconsistent (the Fraternity’s motto is that by ending one life, you can save 1000, yet they have no problem or deep regrets when one of their operations ends with a train falling into a VALLEY filled with civilians). Topping it all off? The 360-degree bullet. We knew from the trailer that the film would boast some physics-defying fire power, and some of it was actually pretty cool, but the final bullet just jumped the shark by so many miles, that it was hard not to pull a Homer Simpson and exclaim “D’oh!” For those who haven’t seen the movie, here’s what I’m talking about…(CLICK)

3. Angelina Jolie in "Changeling": Yup, she’s back folks. But what makes this worse than her work in A mighty Heart, is that this time she actually snagged a nomination! While the suffering mother role is one the Academy loves, why did it have to be this one? She cries, she screams, and she cries some more, made worse by those moments when the score starts playing to let us know what to feel. In the end it’s not a bad performance, but it’s just a rather hollow one. She can cry and scream all she wants, but if there’s no depth, then it’s not even worth the price of admission, let alone a free ticket to the Oscar ceremony.

2. Sean Penn in "Milk" (please don't kill me): This one took me a while to come to terms with. While I certainly didn’t think that Sean Penn was GREAT in Milk, I still thought he was good, and if you look back at my personal nominations for 08, he’s in my best actor roster. So why did I feel extremely miffed when he won the Oscar? Well, after locking myself into a Cave of Meditation (for 10 minutes…yeah, I’m deep) the lightbulb went off and I knew why: I felt like I could see Penn acting. For an actor who is often praised for “becoming” his characters, I found his work here to be distracting. Every little gesture, every vocal inflection, I felt like I was seeing a work in progress (and a mechanical work in progress at that). As a whole, the performance simply didn't flow together. Maybe if I see the film again in a year or two I’ll change my mind, but for now, I have to place Mr. Penn’s performance on this list. It’s distracting enough that I don’t have enough rage to direct at the spectacularly overrated supporting cast, or the film itself, which is saying something


And the number one offender from 2008 is....*drumroll*

1. The “Twilight” phenomenon: Why is this schlock so totally popular? Whether film or book, this thing is filled with stupidity. Now, I have no problem with people liking the books for what they are: silly, gooey, fluff. But when fans starting touting them as “the next Harry Potter,” the vein in my forehead starts to bulge, and it isn’t pretty. There are so many wonderfully witty articles dedicated to dissecting the silliness of this franchise, so I’ll try my best to condense some of their points. First: The Writing. Easily the underlying problem to just about everything else wrong with this series is Stephenie Meyer’s prose, which at times is exceedingly purple (though never as bad as Christopher Paolini’s Eragon series). Having skimmed a copy owned by some cousins (who like the books but acknowledge them for the fluff that they are) it seems that Ms. Meyer can’t go two pages without mentioning how Edward’s (the vampire love interest) eyes “smolder”. They smolder in gold and amber, and all variety of yellow based colors, which makes me think that Edward’s sockets are inhabited not by eyes, but by kaleidoscopes. Worse, in addition to bludgeoning her readers with the same empty adjectives, she likes to use more adjectives than necessary. To paraphrase one such overwrought passage, “He lay there perfectly still, his muscled bare torso sparkling like some unknown material: smooth and cold like marble, glittering like crystal.” No, that’s not overwrought at all. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that passage. You are a true artist with words Ms. Meyer. Cormac McCarthy doesn’t have sh*t on you.

Problem #2: Sparkling vampires. I’m sorry, I think my brain just malfunctioned. Surely I’m getting something wrong. Hmm…nope. I’m not. The vampires, when hit by sunlight, instead of reeling in pain, SPARKLE. And this is somehow supposed to make Edward darkly alluring? Because he sparkles? What exactly is so intimidating or alluring about a man who sparkles? Common knowledge would seem to indicate that if a man sparkles and does nothing to change it, he probably isn’t interested in girls. Girls…that reminds me… Problem #3, the Protagonist: Bella Swan. First problem, she’s a classic Gary Stu (or in her case, Mary Sue). So what’s a Stu/Sue? It’s a lead character that is either A) a vague idealized version of the author, or B) a character so blank and uninteresting and lacking in identity that desperate readers can transfer themselves onto this bland canvas, instead of learning about a defined, multidimensional, interesting character. Bella Swan’s (Bella swan…Beautiful Swan…GET IT?) most interesting trait? She’s “adorably” klutzy. That’s it. Other than that, she’s kind of a bore, and a pretentious one at that: “The reading list [for school] was fairly basic: Bronte, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, I’d read them all already.” And though she describes herself as being plain, awkward, and shy, she becomes the most sought after girl in school after what feels like a week. It only gets better. In the second book (New Moon), Edward feels that he needs to leave after an incident where his brother tries to attack Bella after being attracted to the smell of her blood when she gets a paper cut. So what happens when dear perfect sparkling Edward leaves? Bella’s whole life unravels. I’m not exaggerating. At some point she tries riding a motorcycle off a cliff, all because some guy who sparkles left her. And then, to get out of having to write scenes that explore the mental state of her protagonist, Ms. Meyer “cleverly” has pages written with only the name of a month. Bella is so distraught, that a month goes by without anything of remote importance because OH NOES, MY SPARKLY BOYFRIEND IS GONE!! Y’know instead of focusing on school (although she probably doesn’t need to try in school because she’s sooooooooo intellectual) or trying to make new friends (again, based on what’s been said earlier, this shouldn’t be hard), she just sulks around. Really Ms. Meyer, are you serious? This is supposed to be your protagonist, someone who’s supposed to be something of a role model for tween girls, and yet you’re saying that if your boyfriend leaves you should just give up on life? How is this remotely healthy? You’ve basically just set feminism back a century or two. Hell, Jane Austen wrote more progressive female leads back in her day.
But the one moment in this unfortunately popular series that tops them all in awfulness comes in the fourth book. Having finally been married, Bella and Edward finally get horizontal with each other, and she becomes pregnant with his human/vampire spawn. First off, if the vampires’ bodily fluids have all be replaced with their “venom”, how can the sparkly one impregnate Bella? Even better, the spawn grows so fast that Bella begins showing after barely 3 weeks, and is ready to pop a few weeks after that. Oh, wait, we’re not even close to the “best” part, because nothing…NOTHING can compare to the insanity that arrives when Bella has to give birth. The spawn has gotten so big that as it’s coming out it breaks Bella’s ribs and pelvis, and even threatens to kill Bella. So what does good ole’ McSparkles do? He runs over and uses his fangs to help get the baby out. Let me repeat. He uses his FANGS to help give birth. Bloody, pelvis-shattering, torn-flesh-including, birth that basically amounts to an oral C-section. Y’know…for TWEENS!
So at the end of the day, the most popular literary phenomenon for tween girls is a story about a bland, weak, backwards girl who falls in love with a guy who has taken relationship advice from the Abusive Guy’s Handbook, and falls apart when he leaves, even if it’s for her own good? And making it worse, in the same year that the film version of “Twilight” descended upon us, a much better vampire flick “Let the Right One In” only raked in a few million dollars at most, and is now being faced with the ultimate insult: an English language big budget remake. Is sparkling the future of vampires? Bela Lugosi is rolling over in his grave. I won’t post any direct clips from “Twlight”. Instead, I’ll let the geniuses at Rifftrax do it for me. I’ve seen this video several times and I crack up each time; that “Twin Peaks” reference is sheer brilliance.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - REVIEW

Director David Fincher has been moving on an interesting path lately. His first noteworthy films, like Se7en and Fight Club, were long "epic" tales, yet they had a certain focus on their characters so as to ellicit really memorable performances (particularly Ed Norton, Brad Pitt, and Helena Bonham Carter in Fight Club). Recently, this trend has changed, in favor of films that yield better overall products than performances (2007's woefully overlooked Zodiac, which succeeded due to its writing and directing, and not its performances, which were just "good"). The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is indeed quite curious, because it is much more of a story than an actors' piece, even though it appeared to be full of meaty roles. Benjamin Button is born in 1917, on the eve of the end of World War I, but is born with features/health issues in line with that of a dying man in his eighties. His father, horrified, abandons him on the stoop of an old folks home in New Orleans, where Benjamin comes under care of the home's head nurse, Queenie (Boston Legal season 4's Taraji P. Henson). As Benjamin begins to age backwards, he grows stronger, and eventually meets young Daisy Fuller (later played by Cate Blanchett). Surely such a story had all the potential to be overly sentimental, and Fincher and screenwriter Eric Roth (who also wrote Forrest Gump) had plenty of opportunities to shamelessly tug at our heart strings, but they choose not too. Several scenes where we learn of a death of a character go by without making a huge impact. Sometimes, it's in the moments you wouldn't expect (my eyes got watery when Benjamin, mentally 5 but outwardly 80 grabbed Queenie's hand late at night to ask what was wrong with him). What's really surprising about the film though, is the pacing more than the tone. Fincher's film's usually have an undercurrent of twisted cyncism or darkness, which isn't present here. The constant sense of tension and dread (ala Zodiac) is gone as well. For someone who's a big fan of Fincher's work, I was surprised by the lack of energy with which the first segment of the film moved; not brisk by any means, and occaisionally meandering. And while some of it does come back later to help bring the story full circle, I couldn't help but feel that the first hour or so could've been tightened just a bit. That said, when the movie hits its stride, it soars as entertainment, comedy, and dark drama, all of which is enhanced by Claudio Miranda's lovely cinematography and Alexandre Desplat's delicate score. Special mention should also go to the special effects and make up departments for aging the cast members so gracefully. Performances however, are an entirely different matter. No one is bad or a "weak link", but it's hard to really heap praise on anyone, despite the enormous talent of the cast. It's a shame that a project that has "Oscar" written all over it couldn't have boasted stronger performances from Pitt (who really is a very good actor) and Blanchett (one of the best of her generation). The other problem comes from the story's use of flashback. Instead of a straight narrative, we're told the story in segments as Daisy, on her deathbed as Hurricane Katrina heads toward New Orleans, is read Benjamin's journal by her daughter Caroline (Julia Ormond). At times it can be frustrating when the beautifully lit past suddenly jumps back to the present. That said, transforming F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story into a sprawling 3 hour movie was no easy task, and it's mostly a success. It's just not Fincher's magnum opus, like many of his fans hyped it up to be.

Grade: C+

Nominations: I'm no longer ranking these, as it spoils the fun when it comes time to announce my favorites of the year. That, and I'm having trouble deciding how much I like this movie. Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Make up

Number of 2008 films seen: 50

New "Benjamin Button" trailer!

Variety heaps praise on "Benjamin Button"!

A shimmering melancholic romance about the most unusual of criss-crossing lovers -- a man (Brad Pitt) who ages from infirmity to infancy, and a woman (Cate Blanchett) who grows old like we all -- "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is imagery wizard David Fincher's big-canvas play for mass acceptance, and he's fashioned an effects-laden but character-driven epic that recalls the sweetly doomed, emotional glamour of Hollywood's golden era.

Aging is a theme that resonates with an Academy often criticized for its predilection toward the sentimentality of the subject ("On Golden Pond," "Driving Miss Daisy"). But Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth elegantly fused F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story with a decades-spanning love story, another favorite genre with voters (the Roth-written "Forrest Gump," "Reds"). It helps give "Button" a chance at a category-sweeping juggernaut, with Fincher on track to score his first Academy nomination.

At five nods with one win, Blanchett is fast becoming a yearly Oscar night fixture, and her Daisy is another full-bodied portrayal of sensuality and intelligence that wouldn't be out of place among leading actress turns of the '30s or '40s. One-time supporting actor nominee Pitt (for "Twelve Monkeys"), meanwhile, has an unusual role that fortunately plays to his strengths: love of character parts and brooding ambivalence about his beauty. It could mean his first lead actor nom. Strong supporting work from the lively Taraji P. Henson as Benjamin's adoptive mother Queenie, and last year's supporting actress winner Tilda Swinton as Ben's aristocratic first love could yield other noms.

A Fincher movie is usually a cause for technical celebration, and "Button" covers all the bases, from the sepia-to-spectrum richness of the visuals (Claudio Miranda) to the century tour of clothing styles (prior nominee Jacqueline West), and from the stunning New Orleans-based production design to the performance-capture-meets-makeup aging effects that put Pitt's wrinkled face on a shuffling, diminutive body.

3 beautiful new "Benjamin Button" stills

New "Benjamin Button" TV spot

Unfortunately, you can't embed it, so you'll have to click HERE

New poster for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

2nd trailer for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"!!!

Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic!!

An alternate take on "Benjamin Button"'s Telluride preview

A detailed breakdown of the 20 minutes of footage show in Telluride from David Fincher's 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' starring Brad Pitt, Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett.

Tonight’s Silver Medallion Tribute to David Fincher at the Telluride Film Festival closed with a screening of 20 minutes of Fincher’s much-anticipated new film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Brad Pitt as a baby born old who reverse-ages over eight decades. Fincher called the footage “a series of scenelets,” meaning that, unlike the single reel of There Will Be Blood shown at last year’s tribute to Daniel Day-Lewis, this reel was cut together to give us a teasing glimpse of the wider narrative and scope of the film.

First impression: it’s impressive. It’s absolutely gorgeous, for starters. Coming as it did after a show reel featuring excerpts from Fincher’s music videos and adverts (both cut into a montage set to “How Soon is Now?” by The Smiths, weirdly and unadvisedly divorcing both pop and product promos from what they were made to promote) and each of his features aside from Alien³, it’s clear that Fincher has moved beyond the cool blacks and blues with florescent highlights that have thus far defined his visual style. It’s a period epic, so the broader visual palette makes sense, but it came as a relief that, within all this beauty, the effects used to transform Pitt first into an 80-year-old man and then backwards into a child felt of a piece and not overwhelmingly effect-y.

Also exciting: though the reel gives every hint that Button is a proper epic tearjerker about love and pain and time and blah blah blah, it’s also infused with the dry, quippy sense of humor that cuts through the darkest swatches of Fincher’s filmography. This is, after all, the man who says he wanted to make Fight Club because he thought the book was “hilarious [and] ridiculous. But I’m an asshole.”

A detailed run-down of the clip follows after the jump. Not having seen the full film, I can’t say for sure whether or not there are spoilers, so I suppose if you want to know absolutely nothing, don’t click.

We open on an aged Cate Blanchett in a hospital bed. Her 30-something daughter is sitting by her side, reading aloud from a book. It’s someone’s will. She reads, “All I have is my story, and I’m writing it while I still remember it.”

Brad Pitt’s voice takes over as we fade to an end-of-WWI party on the streets of New Orleans. A man runs up the stairs of a mansion, where a doctor and a number of servants tend to a woman covered in a bloody sheet. She’s just given birth and she’s dying. The man runs to her side, and she cries, “Promise me he’ll have a place.” Pitt’s VO: “She gave her life for me, and for that I am forever grateful.”

The baby is crying, and the dad approaches the cradle. He looks down at the baby and gags. We don’t see anything. He grabs the baby, wrapped in a blanket, and runs down the stairs and out the door as the other people in the room call after him. He approaches the back steps of another house, places the baby on a bottom step, sticks a wad of money under the blanket, and sneaks off. A black man and woman walk out the back door of the house and start flirting. The man, walking backwards down the steps, leads the woman by the hand. They trip over the baby. We get a quick close-up of what’s in the blanket: it’s normal baby-sized, but with grotesquely wrinkled skin. “The Lord done something awful here,” the man says, and books it.

The woman takes the baby inside the house, which appears to be a retirement home where she works. A doctor examines the baby and says, “Shows all the deterioration of a man on the way to the grave.” The woman lies and says the baby was her sister’s, and that the sister had an infection and “the baby got the worst of it. He came out white.” The doctor tells the woman–named Queenie–that “some babies aren’t meant to survive.” She says this baby is a miracle, and takes it into the parlor to introduce it to the old folks. An older white woman says she knows how to cure any baby, and comes over to take a look. “he looks just like my ex-husband,” she says.

Queenie takes the baby, now aged to what appears to be a very old, wheelchair-bound man, to revival service in a tent. At this point, Benjamin doesn’t quite look like Brad Pitt underneath the prosthetic wrinkles, liver spots, etc, but some of Pitt’s mannerisms shine through, and in close-ups, you can’t mistake his eyes. The preacher asks him how old he is. He croaks, “Seven, but I look a lot older.” The preacher does his cast-the-devil-out thing and tells Benjamin to get up and walk. He stands out of his wheelchair, and falls down.

Cut to Benjamin, looking a bit younger but still very much an old man, at the steer of a ship. A drunk sailor asks, “You been on this earth so many years, and you never had a woman?” They go to a brothel. Girls are lined up on the stairs, whispering about how they don’t like the looks of the old guy. A redhead offers to take Benjamin upstairs. Cut to her moaning–Benjamin’s apparently enjoying some kind of beginner’s luck––and cracking, “What are you, Dick Tracy or something?” As he walks out, his voiceover informs us that this is where he learned the value of having an income. As he disappears into the night, his father pops into the frame––he’s seen his son.

Cut to Cate Blanchett, younged-up, at a ballet audition. She has red hair, too, but she’s not the hooker. Still, if it was explained in this reel how she and Benjamin know each other, I missed it.

Cut to Benjamin and his drunk friend, back on the boat, in a blizzard. Benjamin is looking younger, and the drunk asks him what his secret is. Benjamin says, “Well, you do drink an awful lot.”

Cut back to aged Cate in her bed. Her daughter has found a postcard from Benjamin, and is asking if her mom was in love with him. Cut to young Cate, reading the postcard.

Now Tilda Swinton, in a black fur coat, is waiting in the deserted dining room of wherever Benjamin is staying. She’s a redhead, too, which by this point means we know she’s going to take a liking to Benjamin. He comes downstairs in a bathrobe over pajamas–he looks about 60 now, is unmistakenly Brad Pitt, just silver foxed-up quite a bit. TIlda teaches him about caviar and vodka. Tilda tells him she tried to swim the English Channel when she was young, but failed, and never ended up doing anything with her life. He touches her hand on the table, and she leans in to kiss him. A clock strikes. “I’m afraid of the witching hour,” she says, and runs off. “it was the first time a woman ever kissed me,” says V.O. Benjamin. “It’s something you never forget.”

On the ship, at night. “The war finally caught up with us,” V.O. Benjamin says. A wide shot of the sea, full of black blobs–bodies.

“It was May 1945. I was 26 years old. I came home.” Benjamin returns to Queenie’s house. She’s delighted to see him; her daughter doesn’t recognize him. Queenie tells him they’re gonna find him a wife and a job.

Cate Blanchett is suddenly outside. Benjamin greets her, but she doesn’t recognize him. Then she does.

They go for a walk in the moonlight, and Cate’s going on and on about how wild her life is up in New York. She tells Benjamin she’s leaving the next day. She takes off her shoes, then her coat. She starts dancing for him, her body (or her double’s body) silhouetted against a cloud of steam. If it wasn’t obvious that this was a seduction, she then asks him if he’s ever read D. H. Lawrence. She coos, “He was banned, for using words like ‘making love.’” As she continues to babble and contort her body, Benjamin just watches from afar. “In our company,” she says, “We have to trust each other. Sex is part of it.”

She starts telling him about how a lesbian dancer made the moves on her. He says he’s not surprised that people find her attractive. She literally crawls over to him, pauses with her face an inch away from his as if waiting for him to make the move, and then kisses her anyway. He tells her he’ll disappoint her. She tells him she’s been with plenty of older dudes. She tries again. “Not tonight, is all,” he says, more firmly. She collects her things and walks off.

Telluride Film Festival report: Benjamin Button teaser reel gets cold shoulder

Luckily it was only a teaser reel....for a nearly 3 hour movie. Somehow I doubt that 20 minutes would be able to do the whole product true justice....

From Critic Jeff Wells' website:

To my displeasure and irritation, their reactions to the Button footage, and frankly the reactions of others they spoke to as they left the theatre (including a couple of journo-critics and a respected director of an '07 political documentary), were not all that good. Wait...what? This is supposed to have Oscar heat, this thing. Fincher's possible home run, payback for the Zodiac diss, whatever.

My friends had one unqualified positive reaction, which was to the performance by Taraji P. Henson (Hustle and Flow) as Brad Pitt's adoptive mother. But beyond that, the Button footage felt vaguely underwhelming, they said.

It just wasn't particularly exciting or engrossing, one explained. Excellent visual effects (old Pitt as a baby, etc.) and fine cinematography but with a kind of enervated, waiting-for-something-to-happen quality. The footage showed portions of the entire film, the other friend said, but in a way that kept you from getting into it with cuts coming too abruptly. And so people were kind of...whatever, grunting and muttering on the way out.

I didn't like hearing this, of course, because I'm a fan of Eric Roth's script as well as an overall Fincher fan so I started arguing with these two. What were people looking for? I asked. What is it that people wanted to happen? It's just a reel, a taste of a feature film.

They only repeated that whatever it was that the Button reel was trying to sell, they didn't get it or get into it, and some others they've spoken to since it ended feel the same way.

Early review of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"!

It's mostly positive, and the main complaints (as mentioned by the person who posted the review online) are similar to those lodged against Fight Club and Zodiac (and they happen to be two things that never bothered me at all because I didn't think they were there; Fincher knows how to make a long movie great the entire way through and I don't think he'll disappoint here).

David Fincher’s THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON Has Screened, And We’ve Got A Review!

If anyone can break the big-screen F. Scott Fitzgerald curse, it’s David Fincher. But did he really need three full hours to exorcise the Hollywood demons of THE GREAT GATSBY, THE LAST TYCOON, TENDER IS THE NIGHT, THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS (and the author’s alcohol-hastened demise at the age of forty-four)?

This is the only review we’ve received from last week’s screening. It’s mostly positive, but it does find fault with Fincher’s storytelling (third act “repetition” was a significant problem for this reader). Since I know there have been… discussions at Paramount over the length of BENJAMIN BUTTON, I’d really like to get a few more opinions on this cut of the movie - especially since some critics complained of the “repetition” in the third acts of FIGHT CLUB and ZODIAC.

So please send along a review if you were lucky enough to check this out (four months prior to release, you bastage!). Here’s one reader’s take…

I scored a few tickets for an “UNTITLED” screening at Paramount Studios while standing in line at the Tropic Thunder screening, which is beyond hilarious. After a long wait in the burning sun, we were taken inside Paramount Studios and seated in one of the nicest screening rooms I’ve ever seen. Whatever the film was—I was just excited to watch something on their screen. But I was not disappointed when we found out it was David Fincher’s upcoming film, THE CURIIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON.

This will be spoiler free.

The film tells the story of Benjamin Barker (Brad Pitt) who is born an old man and ages backwards. In the midst of his awkward and unexplainable body changes, he falls in love with a fellow small-town girl by the name of Daisy (Cate Blanchett). The film tells the story of Benjamin’s entire life, however, it mainly focuses on him and Daisy, who are slowly but surely aging in opposite directions. Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story of the same name.

First off, this does not feel at all like a David Fincher film. I think die-hard Fincher fans are going to be quite surprised. At its core, it’s a very romantic film. He has certainly stepped out of his box and certainly out of his usual realm of creativity. There were many moments in the film that felt almost Tim Burton-eqsue.

The film starts out amazingly. The story itself won’t have any trouble reeling people in because Fincher is a great storyteller and the source material is top notch. However, I felt this film suffers from the same mistake Zodiac suffered from: things fell apart toward the end. The film is somewhere near three hours. By an hour and a half/forty five, the audience was getting restless. I could hear them squirming in their seats in front and behind me. The last hour is ultimately weighed down by a lot of repetition that has to do with the romance between Pitt and Blanchett. The film is truly great up until the final hour where things begin to feel muddled and unnecessary.

I know that seems like a lot of negative feedback. However, trust me, there is a great deal of excellence in the film. Claudio Miranda’s cinematography paired with Alexandre Desplat’s beautiful score makes for some truly magical moments. In fact, most of the film is filled with these kinds of moments. It works more than it doesn’t work; it’s just the final hour that needs to be tightened up, as well as some rough patches toward the middle. As far as performances go, Pitt and Blanchett are very good, but there are some definite dry moments.

The special effects and make-up in this film are truly amazing. Brad Pitt’s descent into youth is never once unbelievable; it looks tremendously authentic. The same goes for Blanchett’s aging process. The announcer said the film’s effects weren’t quite finished yet, which is even more impressive.

With all that said, the film is still in the very early stages of it’s life considering it won’t be released until Christmas. Fincher and his team have a lot of time to polish it up. I’m sure these test screenings will reveal the film’s obvious missteps, because I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who felt this way. Beneath it’s sprawling three hours, a beautiful film exists. I have faith that Fincher will find it.

Source: ain’t it cool.com

The Benjamin Button trailer ACTUALLY IN ENGLISH

This time I swear it's in English...no "spanish disguised as english", no "spanish dubbed over with english"...this is the real deal if you haven't seen it already..

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button TRAILER!!

unfortunately, it's in Spanish, but on the other hand, there isn't much dialogue seeing as this is just a teaser. Perhaps I'm wrong, but something about the trailer (specifically the music) is giving me the idea that this will be something of a darker "Big Fish"-type film...