Quote (AnomanderRake @ Aug 17 2013 02:35am)
I watched it recently. I'll give my honest opinion, though I'll tread lightly, as it seems to have some die hard fans here.
I didn't like it. I felt like they tried to put too much style, not enough substance. You can dress a soy burger with the fanciest bun, nicest lettuce, most expensive mustard, etc, but in the end, it's still just a soy burger. They try to convey the main character's emotional predicament, among other things, in an eccentric artistic sense, which felt very experimental. Only, in my opinion, the experiment failed.
I thought the characters were pretty bland. Ryan Gosling may have shown a dark side, in his abuse of his date after their encounter with his mother, but other than that, he's just a boring paragon of good and integrity. The mother is just comically evil, willing to nuke a country full of babies to avenge her son. The cop was just a stereotypical ruthless brutal villain with that small bit of depth in that he feels he's dispensing his own kind of justice (but that idea is played out IMO, and if you don't do something unique with it, why do it at all?) The story is straightforward, not much to comment on there. I feel like every bit of depth they could have given the movie was wasted on some random artistic bullshit.
But that's my opinion. Others love it, and I respect that.
I agree with most points made here, especially your understanding of villain/good guy roles. In my opinion doves is way off with his response to this (just my opinion)
Though I would recommend you watch it again, I found it layered and I enjoyed it that little bit extra second time around. Watch it again with what you know in mind and you'll find yourself enjoying the artistic experiment stuff more knowing your not trying to understand meaning so much - this was my experience at least.
People slam this movie because drive was so good, missing the point in this one