The Great Gatsby

- Most anticipated film of 2013 -

Obviously, I've been looking forward to this movie for awhile now. I named it as one of my most anticipated films for 2013 and I've been counting down the months until it's release since I learned of it's existence when it was announced a few years ago. The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books so naturally, I really wanted it to be an amazing film.

That being said, you've probably figured out already that I went in with too high expectations. Not quite as high as when I had gone in to see Prometheus around the same time last year, but I still was expecting it to be one of the standout films of 2013.

It's never a healthy choice to do that because you'll always be disappointed.

From what I've seen, this movie has garnered a lot of mixed reviews. I'm not about to bitch about it and tell you that I didn't like it because I did, but it wasn't everything I'd wanted or thought it would be.

So, it didn't meet my high expectations. Whatever. It was still a good movie.

One of the best things I can say for it is that it was well casted. Every actor was spot-on and perfect especially Leonardo DiCaprio as the man himself, Gatsby. I had doubts about weather or not DiCaprio was the right guy to portray Gatsby when I went in, but after seing just a second of his screen time, he won me over and I realized that he couldn't have been more perfect in the role. Even Toby Maguire, who, historically, is an actor I'm not a fan of, did really well in this movie and, honestly, I think it's his best role.

As far as the adaptation aspect goes, it was flawless. Just about every line in the movie is a direct quote from the book and the writers didn't try to fuck with us by needlessly changing things around, a common practice that I believe I have ranted about before.

Well, that all sounds quite good, so what is it about this movie that I didn't like?

For starters, there's the gratuitous usage of CG. Pretty much every landscape shot in the film is fake and obviously so. For a movie that really didn't need it, it sure had a plethora of visual effects that I found to be really distracting throughout the film.

Besides that, there's the application of modern pop music as opposed to what the characters would be listening to in reality, swing. Why that was done, I have no idea. It almost feels like the filmmakers were trying to pander to a larger audience by sensationalizing it like that but it just felt really out of place, especially in a film where the music plays such a key role.

The contemporary dance music combined with the excessive CG made it really difficult for me to place myself in the movie and make myself believe that it was the 20's. That may sound like a petty complaint but it's all too necessary when you want to rope your audience into the film.

As a tradeoff to the damage done by the over-the-top CG, just about every second of the movie is a joy to look at. It's a very stylish and visual film, which I'm all about. It's hard not to enjoy the many booming party scenes that are simply exploding with energy. That's what I think this movie had in droves: energy. Everywhere you look there are extravagant colors and music and dancing and all sorts of wonders for the eye to behold. That's certainly a plus for this film and I can see that they were really trying to capture the life of the "Roaring 20's", but I wish they'd gone about it in a way that didn't involve awkwardly removing the viewer from the time-period.

Worth it?

So, all in all, yeah, it's definitely a good movie. Not as good as I'd hoped and it may not end up being one of the standout films this year but still definitely worth the watch. I still have a nagging feeling like there was something sadly absent from this movie; something dreadfully void. Maybe it's me still trying to cope with my inability to place myself in the time or maybe it's something else. If you do happen to see it, which I still recommend, try to pay attention for that because I seem to be at a loss for words.

8.5/10 - Memorable. Would watch multiple times.