savethecloudsfoundation

My biggest complaint about Wes Anderson films is the constant exposition full of whimsically redundant details. A little bit of this is okay but this film was non stop.

The film felt like one long exposition rather than a story. It's like a constant narration of what is happening instead of letting the story tell itself through dialog. The first story was good. I enjoyed it. It was a bit silly but that's okay. The movie gets progressively worse from there. The second story makes absolutely no sense at all. And the third story is somehow even worse.

It's the kind of story where it probably makes sense to the writer but the audience has absolutely no clue what is going on until watching it a second or third time.

That's not why I watch his movies though. I watch his movies for the production design and style. And this film was absolutely beautiful visually.

The story sucked but it looked nice. Typical Wes Anderson.

I might have given 2 stars if the character designs had be at least half decent but they are terrible. The whole thing feels like some kind of dystopian concept conceived by a group of people too ugly to show their faces in public. Every person on this show has to talk about how "shy" they are. Yeah right! You're on a nationally broadcast TV singing competition I doubt you suffer from too much anxiety. Why does everyone have anxiety these days? Why can't people just be themselves? When did we start valuing artifice over authenticity?

My biggest issue with this movie is that I had a hard time understanding what was going on. Not because of the subject matter but because the style of acting and writing mixed with the loud music. Pretty much all actors especially the lead was engaged in what I call mumble acting. When combined with loud droning music over the top I was completely lost. Then on top of that some of the scenes seem to be cut short and jump straight into the next scene without any context leaving me wondering how we got there and what it has to do with the previous scene.

That being said I thought the idea of not only going back in time but traveling though time in reverse was really really cool. I can only imagine how strange that must feel. Super cool to think about. And then I was also impressed by the practical effects used throughout in the action sequences. It really took it to the next level.

So overall very cool concept and ideas and awesome stunts but poor decisions with the music and acting style.