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dreagan110
Reviews
Liberal Arts (2012)
Boring and Contrived
Liberal Arts comes out of the gate with a funny enough opening scene. Then follows it up with 90 minutes of irritating, contrived garbage.
How this film has garnered any kind of positive buzz or praise is beyond me. It is as bad a film as I've ever seen - and given its somewhat modest goal of being a low key character study, the failure is intensified.
This is a film that will live or die on the depth of it's characters and the emotional engagement they prompt from the audience. Liberal Arts has some of the most hollow characters I've ever seen in a movie of it's kind. Our hero is boring and devoid of charisma. We're literally just told he's likable. The love interest is the typical geek fantasy - endlessly plucky, energetic, free thinking and just what the doctor ordered to awaken the soul of the protagonist. In other words, fake. The various college kids that inexplicably take a liking to the hero are just sketches of people - there to serve a purpose, but without any hint of a soul.
Things happen in the plot, of course - but you won't care. The movie goes through various motions and is surrounded by music and camera moves. But none of it matters a bit, because you won't care about the characters. You may as well try and enjoy sock puppet theater for its emotional heft.
Save the time and money. See something else.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
So many good reviews... Why?
I don't know guys... I'm reading a lot of these positive reviews, and I think its neat you liked the books and were entertained but when you take a step back and just examine the film on it's own merits, it really is just mediocre. I don't mean to be an elitist either, I went into the movie wanting to like it. I was just stunned by the standard looking CGI, unimaginative lighting and visual theme, wooden acting and general feeling of "Is this thing almost over?". It also, unfortunately, had to conform to the trappings of what is considered a "family" movie. That runs the risk of causing unintentional laughs. The filmmakers had a choice: 1. A smaller, quirkier film focusing on the more magical and charming elements to the story 2. A big bloated "epic" (even though that word is reserved exclusively now for films of LOTR caliber)with an unneeded battle scene and very little in the way of character development.
Given all the positive reviews and the box office returns, they made the right choice for the consumers.