Objectified

Objectified, a 2009 documentary, gets a mixed rating of 6/10 from me. It provides an insightful look into the world of product design and consumerism, but its execution lacks the engagement factor, making it somewhat tedious to watch.

The documentary does a commendable job in revealing the intricacies of how products are designed to appeal to consumers. It delves into the thought process behind everyday items, offering a perspective that's both educational and thought-provoking. The film highlights the ongoing cycle of consumerism, showing how products are continuously developed and marketed to keep consumers buying.

However, despite its insightful content, Objectified struggles to maintain viewer interest throughout. The presentation can feel monotonous at times, lacking the dynamism or narrative hook that keeps an audience captivated. It's more of an intellectual exploration than an entertaining watch, which might not suit everyone's taste.

In essence, while Objectified offers valuable insights into product design and the psychology of consumerism, its somewhat dry and unengaging presentation detracts from the overall experience. It's a documentary that's worth watching for the information it imparts, but it may not be the most exciting or captivating film in the genre.

Well edited and composed, Objectified is neither groundbreaking nor earth-shatteringly enlightening, but it holds the interest of the audience.

The transitions from subject to subject and interview to interview are smooth and unobtrusive, and the content of the documentary is interesting and cool. Form really does follow function in terms of the composition of this film, but given that it deals with the means by which design integrates itself seamlessly into our experience, the lack of bold choices becomes pertinent and is therefore less troublesome. If one is to be generous, it could even be supposed that this kind of difficult-to-notice editing is some kind of implicit statement of philosophy with regards to the role of design in the life of the individual.

An interesting film. Worth seeing.

"Objectified" was an interesting documentary, but you should know what you're getting into. It's about design, not ergonomics. The keyboard which has the bent, boomerang shape is ergonomic. It's made to be compatible with human hands. Design is whether the keyboard is black with flat, square keys or whether it's white with indented keys. "Objectified" has little to do with engineering and more to do with our emotional reaction to objects. It's not about why the $50 Williams-Sonoma egg whisk is better than the $3 Wal-Mart egg whisk. It's about why we'd pay for one and not the other. What were they thinking when they designed that pretentious European furniture at the gallery when it isn't any more comfortable than the chairs at Big Lots? Why did we buy this tie and not that one, since neither one serves a practical purpose? The movie is esoteric, not scientific. It makes it harder to understand, but ultimately, I found the 76 minutes to be thought-provoking and worthwhile.

Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship and connection between manufactured objects and the people who design them, not manufacturing or engineering behind it. What do designers think after creating and using them? This film also brings out some degree of curiosity of what is inside the "Object" itself, the process and thought behind it made the film quite interesting.

I would say that people who like this documentary are interested in the designing process and the point Hustwit is trying to make, which is showing the strong connection of everything to the audience. The hook itself for this movie is quite weak and from what I see this documentary is for a very specific type of audience, casual viewers or people who are not interested in design might not find this film interesting at first but at some point in the documentary it will make sense and become more interesting for you.

For me, at first this documentary is quite boring because I am not really understanding what are some of the point they trying to make because most of the point are made based on emotions not base on scientific but I am not going to lie, after a while Hustwit is able to find small but powerful details we ignore and bring it up to show us how important it is to our life, those little thing we used and ignore Hustwit made us realize their existence and open up the designer and user perspective to us and many others more interest point of why they have to be in a certain way, like why is some product is mass-produce and some are not, if we stop using mass-produce product will it rise our product standard in the market, and some others point such as this quote which caught my attention "every object tells a story, if you know how to read it" and this bring me back into the documentary again after I was bored not quite understanding the rest of film.

After a while the more I watch and listen to the more interesting it gets but still most of the interviews are still boring to me. At the end of this film, I found it is not quite useful or gives out passion in design, for me the film itself is a bit long for the information it gives and the way it is presented, clearly we can work on the script and how they presented but they made the statement quite clear and interesting point also the film really showed me some of the new ideas and points that I never thought about.

Overall, I recommend this movie to people who are interested in design and connection between them. I don't like how the movie is presented, maybe because I didn't watch a lot of documentaries for entertainment, but I would say people who like these kinds of documentaries will love this film.

First off, just to let you know, I'm a designer. I say that because it may mean that I have more interest in the subject than most. Objectified however really points to the fact that we are ALL interested in this stuff. Far more than most consciously realize, and for those who do, probably more than we care to admit.

Gary Hustwit's previous, "Helvetica" is on my rack and gets viewed probably about once a year. It's just that kinda documentary. Objectified is, in my 'subjectified' opinion, not quite so good, not quite as thoroughly followed through but Hustwit remains one of my favorite documentarians.

Objectified is certainly engaging enough to pull you into the designing backstage of our world; the depth of thinking that goes behind much of what we take for granted. If you like "stuff" you'll like this movie. Even if you don't particularly care, then I still recommend it. Hustwit is again able to show just how powerful a pull we give to the things around us, what goes into them, and what we get out. You may find you care a lot more than you think you do. We really have a materialistic mindset and this is a good first step to seeing it clearly ... and maybe finding a way out.