I do wonder if part of it is that it became so influential that coming to it after the fact makes it feel less potent and maybe but OTOH The Road Warrior was also ridiculously heavily imitated and diluted and it still packs a punch (more than Fury Road IMO, although Fury Road is a great watch too)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521581)

But the rest of the movie around it is just sort of undifferentiated mush. And it's mush that looks cool, and style goes a long way for me (I love Italian horror, for goodness sake--and that crap is all style)--but there's no 'there' there.

Which is funny because that's also how I feel about Scott's other SF masterpiece, Alien--I don't actually like it very much. And it's the same thing--the production design and science fiction aesthetic is really good and was super influential, and again the famous parts of the movie are actually as great as everyone makes them out to be--but most of the movie is a sort of indifferent, unmotivated blur to me. Which sucks, because I'm a huge horror-mo, and Alien is one of the few horror movies (vis-a-vis other genres) to ascend to canonical status even among non-horror fans, but it just leaves me cold. Whereas Aliens kicks ass. Maybe I'm a Philistine--it's quite possible, even probable--but I just do not like Alien very much.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521617)

Nolan is probably the only really big-budget filmmaker who's trying to do anything with his big blockbusters that's at all artistic or thought-provoking (maybe Fincher, to a lesser extent, but Fincher isn't working at the level of spectacle like Nolan). And I don't think any of his work is particularly artistic or thought-provoking, but at least there's an effort. Certainly his movies are all very well made, and generally genuinely exciting and engaging. He's a good filmmaker, maybe even a great one.

So for the people who mainly watch capeshit and similar big things, Nolan is probably the highest quality stuff they're consuming. It's like if you went your whole life with Busch Light and Natural Ice and suddenly you had, IDK, a Stella Artois or something. It's not really much more sophisticated, but there is tangible quality, and it's marketed and packaged well, and so you'll overrate it. Doesn't make it bad. But it should just be part of the overall diet.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521665)

robert downey jr is excellent

it's long and self indulgent but i thought it was entertaining

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521722)

https://youtu.be/ufbexgPyeJQ

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521729)

I really wish I loved it as much as everyone else does, because I like Philip K Dick (and dick in general--I'm gay), and I think science fiction and cyberpunk and such is cool, but it's just sort of 'okay, I guess.'

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521683)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48521993)

tp?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48522064)

popular disdain notwithstanding, the style and themes of this movie were massively influential for years so it's no hyperbole to say it had some visionary quality that resonated with people who make movies. with that in mind, you can easily analogize it to a band that maybe you don't really enjoy or 'get,' but is nonetheless hugely accomplished and blazed some new trail that inspired others. the old thing about the velvet underground being 'a band that not many people heard, but everyone who heard them started a band' is the classic example of this. it speaks to lasting significance and few films achieve that.

so of course it gets overrated to some degree because it has been greedily sucked off by pop culture nerds for credibility and it just becomes an easier reference point as time goes on because it remains in the popular consciousness. that's just what happens to certain creative works that are prominent or foundational in their genres. but its reputation is hardly undeserved.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48522802)

But it is a very hollow movie. Bits and pieces of it are GOAT POTUS science fiction filmmaking (and are great filmmaking in general), but there's just nothing binding it together.

I should probably give it a rewatch--I only saw it once, years ago. Some movies (The Big Lebowski, Be Kind Rewind) didn't work for me on first viewing but on revisiting I recognized the greatness. I might have gone in expecting more of an action movie than I got.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5659565&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5310486#48523179)