I had been waiting for several years for this movie to come out, so was extremely nervous (and excited) about what Peter's latest movie would be like and whether it would meet my high expectations.
I felt the movie successfully delivered in providing its viewers with a realistic (although somewhat pessimistic) view of today's society, in particular our misaligned, divisive values and the systems (e.g. Advertising) that continually reinforce these values in our culture.
I particularly enjoyed the storyline between the activists and the establishment but I felt this could have included a little more action and slightly less dialogue.
One of the major highlights of the movie for me included the frequent symbolism in the movies (such as the crashing train analagy), i.e. The movie allowed some points to be shown using symbols and metaphor rather than spoonfeeding us every detail. There was also some humour in the film (such as "this is apple juice") but I was pleased this wasn't overdone, which could have detracted from the serious messages this film is trying to convey. My absolute favourite part of the movie was the final 10 minutes - what a beautiful and inspiring vision!
Peter's greatest strength as a film-maker is explaining complex concepts (such as relative poverty, the pepertual-debt-based money system, the scarcity vs infinite consumption paradox, the economic roots of oppresion / slavery, etc) in a very simple, easy to digest manner. He covers a LOT of points here, but i feel it's a good balance between explaining concepts explicitly and illustrating them symbolically.
Overall, i really loved the film and it definitely met & even exceeeded my expectations. Along with Peter's other works, I would definitely recommend this film to anybody, particularly if you don't mind being intellectually challenged and are open-minded enough to seeing the world through a different lense.
