Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-25-2008, 12:10 PM:

Did anyone else make it through this 18 hour epic? I was very disappointed, as this seemed to me nothing more than a wanna-be Forrest Gump remake starring Brat Pitt from the planet Ork. The only thing good about this movie was the makeup.

1 out of 5 stars

Posted by Jon P. Inghram (Member # 4125) on 12-25-2008, 01:09 PM:

"Wanna-be Forrest Gump" was exactly what I was thinking after watching it. Especially after the WWII sequence, it just seemed to lose it's way and drag on without end, and could have easily been trimmed down to 120 minutes, if not shorter, without effecting what story there was. The ending happened so subtly and meaninglessly I was like "Wait, it's actually over? YAY!"

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 12-25-2008, 04:21 PM:

There's this theory that's been going around since FIGHT CLUB came out that David Fincher movies follow the same pattern as Star Trek movies, where the even numbered ones are good and the odd numbered ones are bad. So let's see here...

Alien 3 is #1 (odd)

Se7en is #2 (even)

The Game is #3 (odd)

Fight Club is #4 (even)

Panic Room is #5 (odd)

Zodiac is #6 (even)

So that means THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON is...

Yep. Still works.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-25-2008, 04:43 PM:

I firmly disagree. The Game is the best movie on that list.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 12-25-2008, 09:45 PM:

No, "Panic Room" is, because it's the only one I bothered to see.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 12-25-2008, 10:02 PM:

The Game was lame. It actually made me angry that I had watched, it.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 12-25-2008, 11:59 PM:

I agree with Brad on this one. The Game was well, not great but at least very good. I liked Panic Room too.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 12-26-2008, 12:16 AM:

Seven was better (I refuse to spell it with the number in it because that is just plain retarded).

Posted by Joe Tommassello (Member # 4632) on 12-26-2008, 10:51 AM:

I liked Panic Room, Fight Club, etc. but I also agree "The Game" was a great film.

Posted by Richard P. May (Member # 3598) on 12-26-2008, 12:48 PM:

Well, back to BENJAMIN BUTTON...
I thought it was a big bore. Very low key, dark, and who cares.
Technically, the whole crew did an excellent job. At our SMPTE meeting a couple of months ago many of the creative staff were on a panel, and we could see their dedication. The script was the problem, as well as the 167 min. running time.

Posted by Paul Burt (Member # 3743) on 12-26-2008, 01:28 PM:

I thought Benjamin Button was a very fine film. Like most of Fincher's films, it's getting mixed notices at best, but the same thing happened with Fight Club, The Game, Panic Room and even Zodiac. No matter. It's a great film and eventually will be recognized as such. My choice for the year's best so far. Deeply intelligent, beautifully realized. No big action sequences (unless you count a fishing trawler's encounter with a u-boat) and I suppose that puts some people off in a nearly three hour movie, but I was completely rivited all the way through. Trust Fincher. He knows exactly what he's doing, even if a lot of us can't recognize it yet.

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 12-27-2008, 04:07 PM:

I have to agree with Paul for the most part, I really liked it. I didn't see any of the comparisons to Forrest Gump. Unless your talking about the fact that it was 3 hrs and covered the course of someones life. Then yeah I see it.

They did a great job with the makeup effects and making Brad look very very old and then very very young. Spoiler of sorts, when he walks in to the dance stuido towards the end, they made him look like he was a teenager.

On the negative side I do think that they could of cut about 20-30 minutes and pulled the story together a little more. Even with that said I still liked it and liked the style it was done in.

4/5 [thumbsup]

Posted by Chris Hipp (Member # 1788) on 12-27-2008, 05:44 PM:

Here's what you do. You take the premise from that Star Trek episode where the race of children are born old and get younger, wrap it around the Forrest Gump plot line and give it Big Fish's ending and you have Benjamin Buttons.

Posted by Tyler Potts (Member # 4952) on 12-27-2008, 07:14 PM:

I thought it was absolutely amazing. I watched 2 hours after a shift last night (then at 12:30am realized I had to be back there in 9 hours) and the last hour tonight. I'll be going back again this week for the full sitdown effect. I remember thinking if they tried to make the Gump movie as epic as the book it would have more resemblance to Button.

And the flashback story telling of the clock in the beginning, I think they must've filmed it, put it on 35mm, then kicked it around a parking lot. I had trouble concentrating at that point because it was like watching my worst nightmare of a print's condition.

Posted by Geoff Jones (Member # 3668) on 12-29-2008, 05:11 PM:

I thought it was only ok. I didn't hate watching it, but I don't think I'd ever care to sit through it again.

PS: If anyone knows any techs who service the UA Denver Pavilions 15, let 'em know one of the front speakers in auditorium 6 is faulty and sounds distorted (clipping?) on the high notes.

PPS: Anyone in the DC area who wants to catch Fincher's earlier stuff on the big screen can see most of 'em at the AFI Silver Theatre.

The Curious Case of David Fincher
January 30 - March 1

ALIEN 3
SE7EN
FIGHT CLUB
THE GAME
ZODIAC

Posted by Erica Peterson (Member # 1784) on 01-13-2009, 10:58 PM:

Am I wrong or did they only show six of the seven lightning strikes? I'm disappointed...they were my favorite part of the movie. [Big Grin]

Posted by Kurt Zupin (Member # 2751) on 01-14-2009, 01:17 AM:

They showed them all, the final one was in the end when he was talking over the shots of the people he knew in his lifetime.

Posted by Todd Shelskt (Member # 4684) on 01-26-2009, 08:56 PM:

I was thinking about "The Game. " I haven't seen it in a long time. It was an interesting premise, but highly implausible. My first thought after seeing it was "Oh yeah, they PLANNED all of those fake, spontaneous gunshot blasts." Oh, brother. I can suspend my disbelief as much as the next guy, but C'MON!

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-28-2009, 10:06 AM:

I wasn't as blown away by this as I was hoping to be. I'm not sure why either - my wife liked it a lot, but it didn't connect with me somehow. From our crowd comments, women seem to like it much more than the men do. Great makeup and special efx though, and the brief battle scene was very well done. Very reminiscent of "Forrest Gump" in a lot of ways, as has been noted.

I can see why Pitt was been nominated for Best Actor, in fact all of the nominations seem deserved except maybe Picture and Director, which might have more rightfully gone to Dark Knight.

2.75 out of 5 stars from me.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-02-2009, 10:16 PM:

The trailer didn't seem interesting enough to make me want to see this. It came off as pretentious, IMHO.

Posted by Eric Robinson (Member # 2966) on 02-03-2009, 02:24 AM:

quote: Tyler Potts
And the flashback story telling of the clock in the beginning, I think they must've filmed it, put it on 35mm, then kicked it around a parking lot.

A funny thing happened to me. During a maintenance visit to a theatre I spent some time refining the presentation, adjustments, aperture plate filing, etc... until it was perfect. I used image test film for all of these activities. After the film started I leisurely made my way down to the auditorium. I walked in right at the clock scene and was instantly shocked by the poor presentation. It took me a couple of minutes to realize what was really going on.

Posted by Caleb Johnstone-Cowan (Member # 3710) on 02-27-2009, 09:34 PM:

There is a spoiler of sorts at the end of this post...

I was underwhelmed by the film. I usually enjoy these long, sweeping stories but just didn't get involved with any of the characters. The similarities with Forest Gump were ridiculous, even if I hadn't been warned it would have been obvious. Might have been the structure of the narrative. Also the audience was really noisy, think that affected my enjoyment of the film.

However I wasn't bored at any point, mainly because the thing looked and sounded so good. Some of the best use of CGI I have seen. Wish that I had seen it at my work where we played it on a far bigger screen.

Spoilers of a sort now.

Those lightning bits were stupid. It looked like they tested the film, saw audiences were dropping off and thought 'lets put a silly bit in to perk them up'. Did nothing for the film.

Also, could a tugboat really mess up a U-Boat like that? The scene was great but a little far-fetched, but I would like to be corrected.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 03-01-2009, 07:57 PM:

Finally caught up with this today, Regal 15 in Eugene, #12, 35mm. The print was in pristine condition and the presentation excellent. [beer]

I resisted seeing this after reading about its obvious parallels to Forrest Gump. Why do we need a Gump retread? Well I'm kind of glad I went. The movie is middling-pretty-good, and the CGI stuff is amazing. Now I have to admit that much of the time I couldn't help but think "That's just Brad Pitt in some really good elaborate makeup, assisted by CG" but that aspect of the movie is get-overable. Indeed, watching that transformation take place with a lesser-known actor in the role would not be as fun. The other performers are excellent.

I liked it. 3.75 out of 5 stars.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-03-2009, 08:06 AM:

Interesting story, it was slightly "Gump"-like, but it was too long. Lost interest about halfway through.

Not impressed by Pitt anymore, too much of "Dirk Squarejaw" all over the place all the time. Aren't he and Lipps Magoo about to adopt another kid or do something to be on the cover of People magazine again?

Something curiously satisfying about seeing Brad get socked in the snoot in "Burn After Reading".

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 03-04-2009, 03:56 AM:

Long, boring and rubbish focus with lousy low-res video work.

Posted by Tony L. Hernandez (Member # 3524) on 04-16-2009, 03:48 AM:

I'm one of the few who adored it, I guess. I never really wanted to see it but I had a day off (last Monday), was bored and wanted to see the theater it was playing in (The Wyo Theater, Laramie, Wyoming). The film caught my attention from the very beginning and kept it all the way through, which is quite amazing considering that a 120-minute movie is about the most my attention span will allow.
I thought the storyline and the characters were all quite fascinating and I should also add that I am a sucker for films that are set in a different, PAST time.
I was very pleasantly surprised.