An elegant, stirring story, shot impeccably and obviously influential on geniuses and George Lucas alike. Takes its time, however, explaining itself six or seven times more frequently than it has to, so we're taking a leisurely stroll to a dynamite ending. (I shouldn't complain: I have a brain warped by 60 years of stories told somewhat out-of-order, and considering the audiences of the 60's, sure, you can have the exposition repeated after every flashback, fine.)
But worth the runtime.
Well, this is utterly brilliant - stunning in scope and depth, luxuriously designed and displayed, and pulled off spectacularly. About an hour in, I was pretty done with kung fu fighting, and pretty skeptical that they could keep up this level of intensity / interest. I also doubted that they could wrap everything related to multiverses. But then "Part 2" kicks in, and while that took me into other plots I was somewhat less interested in, I found it all…
My wife told me this was a classic, but then confessed that she "probably hadn't seen it all the way through" which is annoying because she's been saying "I want my two dollars" to me for 22 years.
This is a pretty insubstantial teen comedy, fairly gentle compared to other genre films. John Cusack is plenty cute and charming, and his romantic interest steals a few scenes, but everyone else ranges from "unpleasant" to "abhorrent" and so it's unfortunate that…
This, for me, was a frustrating lesson in admiring a film without really liking it. There are some hugely fascinating ideas in the movie, but they don't do nearly enough to offset how bored and insulted I felt during the rest of the runtime. There are, likewise, a couple of really dazzling setpieces, but I had difficulty reconciling that with some other awfully cheap-looking aesthetic touches. This film is going for something really ambitious, but the end result is sort…
