Film: Where the wild things are.

[molbjerg]

Wow. I walked out of the cinema after about 30 minutes, it seemed like the most retarded, sickly piece of emo shit in the world.

I have no idea how it ended and I don't care, just thought I'd post to save some of you the time/money should you have mistakenly come to the conclusion that it was worth seeing.

And it had good reviews, too.

[suhaib]

why is it that bad ?!

i mean if it has good reviews and good rating
why shouldn't we see it ?

[molbjerg]

To save myself digging into it (I don't feel the film justifies my time), I'll paste in a review or two which actually get it right:

This film jumps around between gravely disturbing, mind-numbingly tedious, naively innocent, and severely depressing. Our nearly seven-year-old daughter and her friend were bored to tears, our two-year-old was freaked out, and our whole family felt simply awful afterwards. What a waste of time, money, nerves, and my 35th birthday!

(Warning! Minor spoilers follow—as if anything could spoil the viewing of this movie more than the movie itself.)

The film's main message seems to be that just because your parents get divorced, or your monstrous girlfriend moves out, or your older sister starts hanging out with other friends instead of you, or your mom starts dating again, or, worst of all, she decides to cook frozen corn instead of "real" corn ... does not mean that it is acceptable behavior for you to trash someone's bedroom, bite someone's shoulder, destroy someone's house, or tear someone's arm off. If only you would finally pull back that wolf hood and realize that your demented actions have exhausted your poor mother (and an entire audience).

The filmmakers somehow manage to deliver their message in a simultaneously heavy-handed and vague way. Most viewers will not grasp it, and those few who do will probably not have need of it. If you dare watch this cinematic abomination—which life-sucking action I would never recommend—please understand that you will be subjected to displays of emotional instability the likes of which have not been witnessed since Anakin Skywalker graced the screen. At least Anakin had a cool lightsaber to vent his frustrations; besides using a fork and his teeth, our dear friend Max can do nothing but track snow into the house, defiantly stand on the kitchen counter, and conjure up a pile of dysfunctional overgrown tater tots (and a goat) to help him explore every ugly facet of his consciousness.

You should also be prepared for some ambiguity: I believed for an overlong period that Max's older sister was actually some across-the-street neighbor that Max had a crush on, so imagine my surprise when Max's mother suddenly asked the girl to clear her things off the table for dinner! Another confusing bit is the fact that the main tater tot-creature is named Carol even though he is male, and this character is first seen when he is destroying houses for a reason which will remain unclear unless you can decipher his shouts amidst all the bangs, booms, and gnashing of teeth.

The movie has an air of being steeped in symbolism or in child psychology, but really all that comes across is alarming juvenile psychopathy with a shallow, incomplete, and one-sided resolution.

Several inconsistencies appear in the film, the most upsetting of which has to do with physical injury. When one character is sharply struck with a dirt clod, his resulting wound and suffering are clearly evident; yet when another character loses his arm in a scene which is not graphic but still gruesome, the filmmakers conveniently gloss over any expected pain and replace it with a cheesy joke. How inappropriate and insulting!

The movie is not at all a delightful adaptation of a beloved children's book. It provides absolutely no entertainment for children or adults. Its seeming claims to educational value are far from viable. It embodies a perfect recipient of the complaint relegated to poor films: "That's two hours of my life I'll never get back!"

Incredible that so many people have well received this film -- it is long, dark both in visual terms -- but even worse, it is dark in emotional terms. "Where the wild things are" turns out to be a place where the animals/monsters are all passive/aggressive depressives. How do you take one of the best visualized children's stories that has only a couple of hundred words of text into a feature length movie? Answer: you don't. For whatever whimsy the book contains, it is distorted into a singular, overlong and morose personal version. I found the angst of the characters to be completely unengaging and most of all boring -- as did my four year old. Fantastic Mr. Fox is an incredible contrast -- wonderfully visualized with sufficient intellectual content to carry a feature length film -- and most importantly, upbeat and positive in outlook. The monsters in "Where the wild things are" really are analogues for unhappy, bitter adults with deep emotional problems -- YUCK!

I feel like I sat through an entirely different movie than 95% of everyone who has rated this abomination. I suppose I need to mention upfront that I grew up with the book and cherished it and blah blah blah...That said this movie is absolutely worthless.

There is no plot!!! My first criteria for a good film. And the "wild things" could not be less wild. They mope and cry through most of the film (apart from their unexplainable love for knocking down trees...?). It's like a mystical CGI Breakfast Club. Too depressing to be a children's movie and too childlike to be geared for adults. Painfully bad dialogue and no real message at the end. He comes home, exchanges a listless hug with his mother (who apparently is not really that upset by his disappearance), is rewarded with cake, is still a little brat, and cue credits.

Worthless. Absolutely worthless. Wish I would have taken my eleven dollars and bought some Valium, it would have had a similar and more enjoyable effect. Do not waste your money.

I wanted to like this movie so bad but would rather spend a night preserving my own toe jam than sit through that poor excuse for a film ever again.

First & foremost, I walked out of the movie half way through. I thought it was done horribly.

here is where I am confused...

is this for kids or adults? Because if it's for kids, wayyyyy too long based around the same plot. Will lose the kids attention after the first five minutes where Max meets the creatures... after that, it's just too much.

and if its for adults... and the movie is trying to tap into some symbolism and so on, it was dragged too long and too much boy vs. creatures !

I didn't see the whole movie, it was so bad, I walked out... so I don't know how it ends... but this is the second movie i ever walked out on, and first was some horrible independent Japanese film, named Hayuandea or something like that...

[harpy]

"Where the wild things are" turns out to be a place where the animals/monsters are all passive/aggressive depressives

Sound funny sound like my a movie I would like to skip through and afterwards get drunk because it was so bad. You know one needs a reason to get drunk.

But, yeah, won't go to cinema, no point watching this kind of movies at cinema anyway....

Most of the time I don't get why one should go to cinema at all. Well I did watch 2012 in cinema - damn laughed all through that long boring movie.... A pure parody on apocalyptic movies. I guess I kind of liked it(it was hellishly funny) because it was one of the few rate apocalyptic movies where Earth actually suffered mass destruction and most of humans actually died and I do like apocalyptic movies and the special effects and the situations...dman

*me hides under the table to laugh her head off thinking about this movie*

[AntiPaladin]

Wow. Just... wow. So basically, most of these people either a) didn't actually sit through the movie, or b) didn't grow up on the book. They apparently don't know, or conveniently forgot, that it's SUPPOSED to be a little depressing and scary all at the same time. That's why it's an incredible story. It's one of those stories that looks nice and kid friendly on the surface, but as you get older and start to read a little deeper into it, you realize it's pretty fucked up. Same with the original Through the Looking Glass that became "Alice in Wonderland." Lewis Carol was a depressed pedophile, yet somehow his stories have become thought of as children's stories (well, i suppose they are, but not in the way people think...)

I don't have the time or effort to explain why the reviews you posted are by obvious idiots ("You should also be prepared for some ambiguity" No shit, really? Have you ever even OPENED the book?) but I for one still think it's awesome.

[fohfoh]

Maybe the same could be said for people who loved "Aladdin" growing up but would be confused as hell and blow a gasket to the amount of dialogue that has to do with the Islamic faith if they watched it again now?


I really should ask my friend to see if she liked it. She was ranting and raving about how amazing this movie was supposed to be.

I'll believe her review. Whatever she says. (Though I still won't go to the cinema for it)

[molbjerg]

I realise that the reviews I posted aren't the greatest.

What is wrong with this film isn't that it covers adult issues, that makes it sound far too good. The point is that it's a big piece of emo shit, which will be leaving parents and children alike empty after watching.

And Antipaladin, doesn't it say something if people can't sit through a film? If it's such an ugly piece of trite that people are willing to literally throw their money away to reclaim some of the life they have wasted? The complaint isn't that it's a bit depressing and/or scary, but that it's just totally unengaging and boring, and whilst it thinks its clever, it's just utterly shallow.

[mgz]

I realise that the reviews I posted aren't the greatest.

What is wrong with this film isn't that it covers adult issues, that makes it sound far too good. The point is that it's a big piece of emo shit, which will be leaving parents and children alike empty after watching.

And Antipaladin, doesn't it say something if people can't sit through a film? If it's such an ugly piece of trite that people are willing to literally throw their money away to reclaim some of the life they have wasted? The complaint isn't that it's a bit depressing and/or scary, but that it's just totally unengaging and boring, and whilst it thinks its clever, it's just utterly shallow.

The same could be said about the passion of the christ or w/e, do you know how many people said fuck this garbage and walked out on it ?

[psyren]

Where the Wild Things Are: Selfish Brats on LSD.

[molbjerg]

Where the Wild Things Are: Selfish Brats on LSD.

I think that overstates the films imagination...

[fohfoh]

Where the Wild Things Are: Selfish Brats on LSD.

I think that overstates the films imagination...

Might not. I haven't actually seen it, but judging from what has been said, it's totally different from the original film that was made in... the 80s?

[Proin Drakenzol]

Same with the original Through the Looking Glass that became "Alice in Wonderland." Lewis Carol was a depressed pedophile, yet somehow his stories have become thought of as children's stories (well, i suppose they are, but not in the way people think...)

I hate you and hope you die a horrible death.

Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass are two separate stories set in two, very different worlds. Most movies combine the two under a single title of Alice in Wonderland (generally rather well, imo) but Alice Through the Looking Glass certainly didn't "become" Alice in Wonderland; they are and will always remain two separate stories. Two separate stories of which Wonderland comes first anyway.

And the alleged pedophilia and depression are debated rather than documented fact. It's a "well, this, if you read into it, seems like it might indicate that..." kind of bullshit. You know what? Maybe the giant hookah smoking caterpillar is actually a caterpillar that he saw while smoking hookah and not some inner demon.


On Topic: I haven't really heard one thing or another about the movie before this thread. I liked the book when I was a child, but that doesn't mean much for a movie adaption. I am looking forward to Tim Burton's version of the Alice stories, however.

[AntiPaladin]

@molbjerg Sorry, but as a film person, I find that most people who "can't" sit through a film are the wrong people to review it. No professional critic will ever walk out of a film because they realize that, by doing so, you show an obvious bias and don't give the film the benefit of the doubt. Same with any media form. If I posted a review panning an Anime series in which I admit to only watching 4 episodes out of 20, no one will give that review the same credit as one from someone who actually watched all 20 episodes. As for the "Emo" angle, fuck, I'm the worlds most anti-Emo person, and I fail to see how WTWTA is anything Emo. No one spends 30 minutes bitching about how they can't get a gf because all women are evil whores and then admitting they've never been in an actual relationship.

@Proin Aww, love you too, sweetie. Sorry, you're right, I meant to say Adventures in Wonderland became "Alice in Wonderland." My bad. Yeah, sorry, he's an alleged pedo since he was never caught with underage girls, only their semi-nude photos. Oh, and his writings and drawings of them in the nude. And the fact that he felt compelled to convince people that he wasn't a pedo. You're right, totally debatable. After all, completely realistic to think that his family tried to convince others that he was a pedo instead of a womanizer, because even during Victorian times it was so much more acceptable to be interested into 12 year olds than in actual women.

Sorry, after seeing what Tim Burton did with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and "Sweeney Todd" I'm not holding out much hope for "Alice"

[molbjerg]

@molbjerg Sorry, but as a film person, I find that most people who "can't" sit through a film are the wrong people to review it. No professional critic will ever walk out of a film because they realize that, by doing so, you show an obvious bias and don't give the film the benefit of the doubt. Same with any media form. If I posted a review panning an Anime series in which I admit to only watching 4 episodes out of 20, no one will give that review the same credit as one from someone who actually watched all 20 episodes. As for the "Emo" angle, fuck, I'm the worlds most anti-Emo person, and I fail to see how WTWTA is anything Emo. No one spends 30 minutes bitching about how they can't get a gf because all women are evil whores and then admitting they've never been in an actual relationship.

Walking out of a film does not show bias. The very fact that you were willing to pay to sit down and watch the film already shows that you are open to it being a good film, in fact you're hoping for it. If it was my job to watch the film, I'd watch it, but as a member of the audience I didn't see reason to increase my suffering by watching the whole thing.

You didn't see the emo-ness? There's the annoying brat of a bitch who is the main character, who one cannot sympathise of empathise with, you just wish he gets lost and run over to get things over with. And aw boo hoo he's from a broken home, mummies dating and his sister hangs out with her friends, WOE IS THIS POOR LITTLE SHIT. A weak modern backing to create an upset kid which was not needed, and was emotionally milked. All of the wild things had their little emotional problems, AW NOES my friend is friends with someone else and I feel left out, booohoo how are people to cope? Not emo? Seriously? It's Dawnson's Creek with fur.

[Scudworth]

I think the problem with this movie was that most of it's target audience are too young to have read the book as a child. It's a pretty old book and I doubt Children are still reading it.
I doubt many people on this forum have read it.
I loved the book as a child, and was disappointed in the movie; However the novelty of seeing these childhood memories brought to life like that was amazing.
Obviously some creative license has to be taken when turning a short book into a full movie, but it's not like the movie sucked enough to ruin my fond memories if the book.
It could have been much worse.
It could have been the third Lord of the rings movie.

Also take into consideration some of the other short Children works and tell me they were better.
Jim Carrey's How the Grinch Stole Christmas or Mike Myers' The Cat in the Hat?
Where the wild things are far surpassed the competition in that regard.

[AntiPaladin]

Eh, I'll go see it again and take another look. Maybe I'm missing something because of how much I idolize the original book. But I actually liked the idea of Max being from a bit of a broken home where he feels alone and ignored - it gives a motive to his acting out other than him simply being a spoiled brat.

[kenshin-dono]

Maybe the same could be said for people who loved "Aladdin" growing up but would be confused as hell and blow a gasket to the amount of dialogue that has to do with the Islamic faith if they watched it again now?

?!? umm... what? lol

I actually just rewatched that with my niece a couple months ago, i have no idea what your talking about

honestly i thought Where the Wild things are was.. different. Beautiful to watch but the story was kinda out there and i can see how some people would just dismiss it as 'emo crap.' It tried to cover some deep issues, and the kid has some serious issues with growing up. I mean he has a lot thrown on him with a lot of changes going on. I mean christ, he just found out that even the sun isn't going to last forever. He had a lot of crap going down in that intro

i actually thought this review was pretty good

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1001-Where-the-Wild-Things-Are

[Morgia]

Maybe the same could be said for people who loved "Aladdin" growing up but would be confused as hell and blow a gasket to the amount of dialogue that has to do with the Islamic faith if they watched it again now?

?!? umm... what? lol

I actually just rewatched that with my niece a couple months ago, i have no idea what your talking about

NOT the Disney version!!!!!

[kenshin-dono]

OOHHH lol, ok that makes more sense then =P never saw the other one... i was going.. wtf?