ShadowKalypso

I don't have much to say on the content of the movie (Average comedy premise and jokes), only that it's much better than people give it credit for. I'm half convinced that all the negative reviews it's getting are due to the annoying trailer being spammed everywhere, not the actual movie content. It wasn't bad, I rather enjoyed it, and while some elements were certainly lacking (A credible third act) it was enjoyable, and that's all a movie is for.

It's not Knocked Up or Hot Fuzz, I'm probably not going to buy the DVD, however it's certainly worth watching, something you won't ascertain from the 14% RT review or terrible IMDb scores.

This movie honestly confused the hell out of me. Being someone fairly interested/talented in math and science, I was absolutely lost as to the entire mathematical/scientific storyline being completely bogus. After reading some reviews, people don't even seem to mind. 'It's fine the storyline makes no sense,' no, it's really not. That alone was enough to turn me off, but the bad sound (Was that what it was? The music and effects just really started to irritate me, who knows) and over-the-top acting just made it worse.

I'm all for independent cinema, in fact that's the career I'm seriously considering at the moment, but independent is NOT in any way, shape or form an excuse for bad. Writing a scientific, mathematically themed script with 100% bogus science and math is absolutely wrong. Film makers are expected to have done research and know what they are talking about. Pi simply fails, and takes too many cinematic risks that don't equate to a good movie, but rather a poorly thatched together piece. It just didn't work.

Lastly, the religion element was over the top and entirely un-necessary. Those scientifically and religiously minded are typically VERY averse to each other, even if it isn't always so you don't want to mix the two, and doing so in this movie I'm sure turned a lot of people off.

This is one of those movies I heard would 'change my life,' that I HAD to see it because it was SO profound.

Well, to me, it wasn't. Honestly, it's just a bunch of drug clichés, loosely latched together with a sad storyline. The familiar subject matter and emotions it instigates are of course authentic, and therefore relevant to many people, but again exploting drug culture better than any film before it doesn't seem to be a landmark achievement to me, it seems to be a drug film. Following this, I watched Pi by the same director and that stands as one of my most hated movies I've ever seen. Perhaps I just don't like the director, or perhaps nothing special is really going on.

I've been exposed to drugs plenty in real life, this is absolutely nothing new to me. Capturing some of the stigma and sadness on film? Perhaps, but some segments are quite fictitious, and I don't think this film really needs to be on the top 250 list. One mans opinion.

Several problems have emerged in the realm of romance movies, among them tedium and predictability. Typically, Comedy is used to relieve tedium while the plot is advanced, however there is still the problem of predictability, which needs a unique solution in each film. Chasing Amy used a two-pronged approach, both using subject matter/language fairly straight forward or even out of line for when it came out (and to a lesser extent, even today) to set a realistic tone for the movie instead of a sappy idealistic one, then it hammers home with several VERY emotional scenes which it seems everyone (Or at least every guy) connects with. In particular, Holden's speech to Alyssa in the car echoes something EVERY man has felt about that special woman, more so than any movie before it has done. And all throughout, the master comedy stylings of Kevin Smith's unique dialog keeps us riveted through the plot.

This movie is neither tedious nor predictable, and it connects to everyone I've seen it with. I've never seen someone watch the car scene for the first time and not be struck silent for a solid 10 minutes. Very moving, and not soon to be outdone. Especially since this was a romantic comedy done from a man's perspective, as opposed to the typical female romantic illusion, it's more realistic with gritty, hilarious dialog and one of the best romantic plots I've ever seen.

Bravo Kevin Smith, really, Bravo.

If you go into the movie expecting anything serious (Especially along the lines of Pulp Fiction / Kill Bill) you'll be sadly disappointed. But for the growing number of cinema viewers perfectly content just having fun, letting a movie be stupid/entertaining you'll love it. (The same kind of vibe I get from Kevin Smith's work for the most part, aside from Chasing Amy/Dogma none of his work is really all that classy, however it's quite good).

Also, see it in theaters. I don't think this will work as well on DVD, the audience effect along with some editing techniques they used make this a much more live audience theater-favorable movie. If you let someone else's pessimism seep into you it'll ruin the film.

Of all the negative adjectives and phrases in the English language I can muster at the moment (Awful, terrible, Whoppie Goldberg), none quite describe just how horrible pathfinder was. It wasn't even the standard 'This movie was lacking in this way: ...' bad, it flat out failed in every way I've tried to wrap my head around it.

1) It had no character development. The dialog was BEYOND horrible, not a single line in the movie had any substance or meaning, for Christ's sake the Indian chick had an American accent.

2) The cinematography was bad, sometimes just downright horrid. I'd trust a dog-mounted camera to capture the fight sequences better, because my dog might actually sit there for a few seconds and let me figure out what's going on, instead of constantly zooming in and out with cuts to the point where everyone is lost. You couldn't tell what was going on during a fight scene, constant cuts made it impossible to follow the action. So with no action and no dialog, you're COMPLETELY lost the entire movie.

3) There were so many moments of stupidity it really astounded me. Vikings wouldn't walk on ice, Indians wouldn't just charge in like artards and fall in ghosts trap (Thanks to the credits I know what his name is, didn't catch it THE ENTIRE MOVIE in the dialog), and for the love of god WHY did they tie themselves together on top of the mountain? The SECOND they did that I said to my friend 'WHAT ARE THEY DOING? NOW IF ONE FALLS THEY ALL FALL, WTF???'. 5 minutes later they were all falling off the cliff. He speaks fluent viking/Norse/whatever after 15~ish years away from them? I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, 2 years ago and I can barely form a sentence. I have friends who were fluent in their native languages 5 years ago and have completely lost everything they knew because they never use it. I'm supposed to believe this guy both learns the Indians language AND maintains perfect viking speak?

4) How were they even vikings? It looked like someone took a Knight out of any video game ever made, took away the horses (on some of them), and put them in a movie with Indians. Hey, this'll be fun! I can see it now, Pathfinder 2: Trail of Tears (Tears of the people leaving the theater in shock that they payed 7 dollars to see the second one, trails leading right to the refund line).

I mean really, it didn't even try to be good. In any way. If anything good came out of this, maybe it convinced someone that if a movie that terrible can be made and gross profit, anyone can do it, and someone got the courage to pursue a career in film.