Why So Blu?

I don't think Zemeckis has gone for story achievements anymore. He's more of a technology mover. He's been on that since Forrest Gump. Everyone of his films have used or tried to use new technology. Sometimes it works and sometimes it looks creepy like those creepy eyed characters from that CGI christmas movie he did.

I'll probably use Sinemia for this.

jpcamb

I read that as "I'll probably sue Sinemia for this"


Saw a commercial for this recently. Looks like it might be good but I'm surprised there is a cross dressing angle to this, it struck me odd to hear them use the term "hate crime" in a period piece. Isn't that a relatively recent term- maybe 80s?

Brian T

Mark Hogancamp's real-life attack took place in 2000. Judging from the cars I could glimpse in the trailer, the movie is probably set around that time, and into the following years while he was building his village. That village, of course, is "set" in the 1940's, and the animated CGI dolls do give off a period piece vibe, I suppose.

dex14

Reviews coming in: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wel...arwen/reviews/

Sounds like it isn't very good, unfortunately...

fumanstan

Damn, the wife and I had been anticipating this one.

stvn1974

Looks like a really expensive bomb to me.

DWilson

"Flight" was a fairly straightforward Alcoholism/Addiction story as I recall, once it was past the mid-air crisis at the beginning.

Michael Corvin

Likewise Cast Away was a green screen mess. Wilson was an absolute bitch to render. All those particles of sand set a new standard in CG.

d2cheer

Not surprising. It does not look very good to me. My girlfriend loves Steve Carrell and even she does not want to see this.

Mabuse

Cast Away used a tremendous amount of special effects. At times even the direction of the wind and the ways the palm trees are swaying in the breeze was done with effects.

Daytripper

He did three of those creepy eyed CGI movies in a row. "The Polar Express", "Beowulf" and "A Christmas Carol". I agree though that he is mostly obsessed with technology over substance. But I am a huge fan of many of his films: "Death Becomes Her", "Back to the Future 1 and 2", "Contact", "Used Cars", "What Lies Beneath", "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".

Jon2

The comments in this thread are giving me an Elgin Park vibe. Similar situations. If you're not familiar with Elgin Park, check out YouTube.

Why So Blu?

I did like Beowulf, though.

Why So Blu?

Outside of that air sequence, the movie sucked.

DWilson

I don't disagree with that at all. I was surprised that it did turn out to be a fairly standard Addiction movie with all the well-worn plot-points of the genre.

I haven't seen the documentary in years, -did Hogancamp actually go to court and face his attackers as is shown in the trailer?

DVD Josh

These reviews are brutal:

"The amazing-but-true story of the idiosyncratic artist Mark Hogancamp has been turned into a bloated Hollywood techno fantasy that has to be seen to be disbelieved."

"Welcome to Marwen is not only one of the worst films released by a major studio in 2018; it's also one of the most offensive."

"Mind-numbingly immense, joylessly violent and utterly lifeless... You've got to see it to believe it, though I wouldn't advise doing so."

DVD Josh

The crazy thing is that the documentary itself has a 98% rating on RT:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/marwencol/

I guess this is a case where art shouldn't imitate life.

E Unit

I read this was a fairly low budget one, like $40 mil, which is cheap considering the special effects and cast.

This reminds me of when Forrest Gump was coming out. I was a projectionist and we got a few trailers for it. The teaser was heavily skewed towards the action, trying to show it as a straight up action flick. A few weeks later we got a note from Paramount asking to destroy those trailers and to put some new ones on. The new trailer nixed all of the action and went straight towards the emotional drama. Then that was nixed and we got the longer more common trailer everyone saw before the movie came out that has action and drama.

Considering it was also Zemeckis, I'm wondering if he was using the same approach to this one as Gump. He wants it to be several things, but they don't know how to market it.

Brian T

Carell probably needs to reconsider taking on this kind of obvious award-bait role as it doesn't seem to pay off much. Reminds me of Robin Williams' career in some ways.

stingermck

Exactly, another actor who did great comedy, no longer doing comedy.

DWilson

I recall that Zemeckis approved the trailers that spoiled the big plot-twist in "What Lies Beneath" (making the first 90 minutes or so a waste) and spoiling the ending of "Cast Away".

Brian T

Cute, but he did occasionally try "serious" roles, and rarely set the box office alight, even when he excelled in them.

dex14

I saw it. It wasn't THAT bad. But yes, it is schmaltzy. Especially if you go in comparing it to the doc. A lot of fiction incorporated in. I saw some reviews say it was the worst movie of the year which is ridiculous.

I thought the effects with the dolls were impressive.

Oh, and I can’t believe Zemeckis found a hamfisted way to throw in the Delorean.

TheMovieman

Currently expected to only make $2.5M for the 3-day weekend.

The_Cube

I was going to see this movie in the theaters, but after hearing all the reviews I am not going to waste my time. I wonder what was offensive about the movie, I am kind of curious. I’ll definitely check this movie out on video since I have been looking forward to it for a while.