DaForce
07-08-2006, 09:10 AM
So I saw this last night. One of the things that went through my head about midway through the movie was why did this need to be animated? Other than the scramble suits, there is really only one maybe two other things in this movie that needed any sort of effects. The animation didn't add to the tripiness of a drug trip because a lot of the animation was somewhat conventional. Anyway, onto the review..
The story takes quite a bit of time to get started, and you never really get introduced to the characters as it's more of an exposure to the characters and their personality quirks. The first half of the movie is kind of like talking to someone who's high as a kite while you're stone cold sober. The ideas never really gel.
The last half of the movie is where the story is, and where the mindfuck actually resides. Like a true PKD story, you never really fully realize what just happened until it's all over. There's no happy Hollywood ending with this one, and I'm glad Linklater stuck to that ending.
It was kind of funny going to see this one. My friend wanted to be drunk for it, and I told him that was a bad idea. He fell asleep, as did the majority of stoners and drunks that went to this thinking it was going to be a 'drug trip' movie. If anything, this movie (like the book) is quite the opposite. It's an anti-drug message. It just doesn't try to scare you, or preach to you, or wink at you. It's much more introspective. Something that only could be written by someone who has been there. By the end of the movie, when full realization of how screwed over the main character had been from the start, the audience sat in total silence. Stunned more than anything.
Rating: Video rental. The animation is okay, the story really drags in the first half (I liken it to reading Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", where Eco had actually written the first 100 pages to be so boring and tedious on purpose to be a sort of penance to get to the actual meat of the story), but really knocks it out of the park in the second half.
The story takes quite a bit of time to get started, and you never really get introduced to the characters as it's more of an exposure to the characters and their personality quirks. The first half of the movie is kind of like talking to someone who's high as a kite while you're stone cold sober. The ideas never really gel.
The last half of the movie is where the story is, and where the mindfuck actually resides. Like a true PKD story, you never really fully realize what just happened until it's all over. There's no happy Hollywood ending with this one, and I'm glad Linklater stuck to that ending.
It was kind of funny going to see this one. My friend wanted to be drunk for it, and I told him that was a bad idea. He fell asleep, as did the majority of stoners and drunks that went to this thinking it was going to be a 'drug trip' movie. If anything, this movie (like the book) is quite the opposite. It's an anti-drug message. It just doesn't try to scare you, or preach to you, or wink at you. It's much more introspective. Something that only could be written by someone who has been there. By the end of the movie, when full realization of how screwed over the main character had been from the start, the audience sat in total silence. Stunned more than anything.
Rating: Video rental. The animation is okay, the story really drags in the first half (I liken it to reading Umberto Eco's "The Name of the Rose", where Eco had actually written the first 100 pages to be so boring and tedious on purpose to be a sort of penance to get to the actual meat of the story), but really knocks it out of the park in the second half.