This movie was kind of weird. Would I recommend it, probably not. I did finish the whole movie, but I am not sure why. In truth, it had me confused for about 60% of the movie, and I kept hoping that as it went furthur my questions would be answered and the confusion would fade away. Unfortunately I still have as many questions now as I did when animation began.
Full marks for creativity (although the crossover from reality to animation isn't really that unique). But for me, it didn't work, and it was a real chore to watch to the end (especially being over 2 hours!) - not the way I want to remember a movie experience.
idk wtf I just watched
Loved the beginning...but when Robin entered the animated world I almost turned it off. I am not a great lover of animation but I am glad I stuck with it as its a very rewarding end. The soundtrack is wonderful and I think Max Richter saved the film for me with his emotional score as ever...and who would have though Robin Wright had such a wonderful voice...Stick with the film until the end...im off to buy the soundtrack now.
Wow. A must see for any fans of A Scanner Darkly and/or Grant Morrison.
The movie was confusing yes, but thats
because it is inspired in the book “The futurological congress”, which in itself is also confusing, even more than this movie believe me.
This movie and the book work together beautifully, ofc the movie does a offer a more simplified version, and creates a new approach to the main story, on which I prefer compared to the book. And it also has a true ending, compared to the book doesn’t not have a true ending.
This is one of those: “you would understand if you read the book”, but it’s not that easy, yes you would understand the concept and why certain things happen, but the new approach this movie makes, creates a more plausible conclusion, and it also brings this concept to the present / real world, where deepfakes, AI and other technologies make the plot more than simply science fiction.
With the most recent breakthroughs of science I’d say the movie aged beautifully, if you found this movie confusing the book will be 100% more confusing.
The beginning was interesting, then quickly became complete nonsense. Huge plot holes. I finished just to see if it made all sense in the end. It did not.
It's not bad, but it's not my style. I rate it a 7 for animation
Almost prophetic (regarding the advent of deepfakes and "digital actors") but overall very hit-or-miss.
The first half was kinda empty, with the exception of Harvey Keitel's excellent, scathing monologues.
The second half had a few more interesting ideas but was also very meandering, especially the romance with Dylan ballooned the runtime for no reason at all. I liked the idea of a Huxley-esque Brave New World but I thought having the people dressed as hobos was illogical and too on-the-nose. I think it would've made more sense and fit better thematically if they were naked, to allude to the Garden of Eden.
Ill put this as simple as I can. Trippy, Artsy, Mind-#%^K. If you're too stoned when you watch this, you're going to have to watch it again. I know I'm going to be, def caught me off guard with how well they did, just had me extremely lost in certain parts. Remember the trippy scene in Dumbo? This makes that look like child's play.
Not bad, although some scenes were a bit over the top. Still, an interesting and "different" kind of "artistic" film.
Review by DeletedBlockedParent2014-03-27T17:45:25Z
I heard about this film some months ago but I didn't expect it to be released in here. When I heard that it would be I knew right away that I had to have the chance to watch it at the big screen because it looked visually appealing and the different story caught my attention too.
The Congress is presented to us as a futuristic story about Robin Wright, the actress that plays herself. The cinema industry is not easy we all know that aging is not a good thing in Hollywood. The parts start to get smaller and start to be less and less. Beauty almost always wins in a world that sells beauty and youth for all eternity. The new Hollywood era in The Congress is exactly the non existence of actors. All actors are scanned into a computer, then the computer does all of the rest. They just have to sign a contract saying that they are "property" of a movie company. But this film is not just that. From that point, we jump into 20 years ahead where people are be able to chose to live in the real world or in an animated world that offers them the freedom of being whatever they want to be with a total different perception of what the world once was before.
The whole concept of this film is very innovative. The combination of live-action and animation is absolutely very well made. Visually is great, very colorful and imaginative. Creepy sometimes but beautiful at the same time. Definitely an unique film.
A lot of moral questions are presented to us like, what is freedom afterall? Why humans are so superficial and selfish? What about human consciousness? It's very deep and we need to find all of the hidden messages beneath what we are watching.
It is definitely a film that will make you think about a lot of powerful issues that exist in this world. It looks amazing and all of the themes addressed are very important but I think sometimes might be a bit confusing and overcomplicated. That's why I can't give it the 5 stars and I also don't know if I can recommend it to any one. I just can speak for myself and for me it was definitely worth watching! I think that it's a film that need to be experienced because is much harder to explain.