"The Great Gatsby" FTW!!

[Peter Moretti]

Let me stat off by saying that I hated the trailer...

But I got to see a screening of "The Great Gatsby," in 3-D no less, last night, and I LOVED IT!!

It seemed that a lot of the framing stylistic decisions harken back to Hollywood's "Golden Age."

It felt modern in a way that the Roaring Twenties probably felt modern while they were unfolding. It felt new the way "The Wizard of Oz" proabaly felt new when it first played. So for me, modern and 3-D worked! Even the voice over worked, and I usually hate VO. But it solved the problem of how do you get Fitzgerald's lyrical descriptions into medium of film? You have someone read them, LOL! Obvious... and brilliant b/c it worked.

This is the best I've seen Carey Mulligan. Toby Maguire was great as Nick Carraway and Joel Edgerton was excellent as Tom Buchanan... as was Jason Clarke as George Wilson. As for Gtasby, well your just going to have to see the film.

For all the Red skintone police, the faces looked fantastic (to me).

And a great touch comes at the very beginning, when the Warner Brothers logo transform. It perfectly sets the tone for the entire film.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Very, very mixed reviews:

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/09/the-great-gatsby-what-the-critics-are-saying/

What I'm hearing is $40M this weekend, then a steep dropoff. We'll see. I think it's a big gamble, myself, but no question, Luhrmann is a very interesting filmmaker who doesn't make predictable, cookie-cutter movies.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Sounds like the same type of criticism that flooded Moulin Rouge. It didn't do anything to its lasting appeal and is now regarded as one of the 200 Greatest Movies of all time, so I am actually even more excited with these reviews. Cannot wait for next week, which is when it opens here!

 

[Justin McAleece]

did anyone else think that the compositing work on the non-flyover scenes, just the normal things with the lakes and everything just felt wrong almost all the time? Maybe I'm just more attuned these days or something, but I felt that OZ and this movie felt very fake, most of the time. I didn't feel that way about The Hobbit. I felt like that compositing was pretty seamless in general. I thought this movie had cool parts but many mistakes overall. I felt it was carelessly inconsistent and irresponsibly stylized. When it was good I liked it and when it was bad, it felt very amateur.

 

[paulherrin]

i literally don't understand what's going on. i'm about to altogether stop reading journalistic reviews (aka slop).
perhaps the vast majority lack reading comprehension skills, haven't actually read fitzgerald, or can't hear unspoken language or meta-narrative.

the nuanced and elucidating imagery is compelling, the characters challenging, and the experience a numbing contextualization.

god sees everything [in 3-D]...

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

THis was one of the most original, fresh and truly magnificent pictures I've ever seen.

A HUGE shout out to RED for helping once again to capture brilliance like never before.

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

That novel is one of the few works in English literature which I'd save if I had limited resources. So I cannot wait to see this movie. And I love Art Deco, so that is only going to make my anticipation greater!

If this were my project I'd have shot it on film. Maybe Ektachrome or Fujichrome - very tricky but it would be so worth it. Then again, I'd shoot everything on film if I had the budget (as much as I revere RED just as much as the people actually using the cameras).

 

[Jacek Zakowicz]

My usually sarcastic teenage son was speechless. The best movie he's ever seen...
It took some getting used to the convoluted contemporary style with period look but after 5 min I was all in...
The score matched perfectly.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Going to see it in about 10 minutes. Baz is one of my favourite directors. This is probably the film of the year I'm most looking forward to see...

 

[Karim_Nassar]

was not interested based on the trailer but the discussion in this thread made me curious.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Saw it. Loved it. A fine return to form from Baz Luhrmann after Australia.

People complain about the soundtrack and about certain over the top visuals- common on Luhrmann's films. The thing is, this is HIS film, HIS world. The story is about the characters, the 1920'ies is a "background" to it. The music "connects" the main themes of the film with our current times. Lavish parties in the 20'ies, bordels exist in our days, probably in different forms, but the music "connects" the times.

Loved the dialogue, the acting- Di Caprio and Mcguire where flawless, and LOVED the visuals. This is the best looking 3D Red shot film so far. Loved the skin tones, loved the detail, the colours. Excellent cinematography and editing. Not a big 3D fan, by the way. I can count on my hand the number of 3D films that impressed me- or that 3D made any sense or improved the film: Avatar, Hugo, Prometheus and The Great Gatsby. Its that good. The 3D added to the film. Could it be shot without it and be as compelling? Lurhmann could pull it off, sure. But the 3D actually adds to the film here.

All in all, make sure you're ready to accept Baz Luhrmann's "cinematic world" at the beginning. If you do, you'll be on a cinematic journey full of intense emotions. Go see it!

 

[Vadim Bobkovsky]

If this were my project I'd have shot it on film. Maybe Ektachrome or Fujichrome - very tricky but it would be so worth it. Then again, I'd shoot everything on film if I had the budget (as much as I revere RED just as much as the people actually using the cameras).

Didn't they pulled the plug for all Fuji negative motion picture film recently?