Slumdog

Hmm… a while back I finally got my hands on Slum Dog Millionare a watched it. This was actually a love time ago, but I was too lazy to blog about it:

So… my response was, besides the epic soundtrack (it really did deserve an award for the score) the movie wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. It was a feel good story written by Americans about India, with perhaps a focus on Mumbai. That being said, there was some truth to the movie. The poverty, the gangs, the violence, the crime and all that exist. My mom didn’t want to watch it because she has seen these things up front and it’s too real for her. Since I haven’t directly seen any of this (not to say I’m unaware of these things and I realize that they go on in Dhaka about as much as they do in Mumbai and other Indian cities, I just don’t see them because I keep to myself and don’t travel about in the slums or at night or interact with more “shaddy” people), I was able to watch the show without it effecting me too much.

But, like I said, Slumdog was a feel good movie. Jamal gets on the TV show, he wins the money, he gets the girl, he lives happily ever after. Even his brother, who ends up dying (killing himself, you could say, though he doesn’t actually pull the trigger) has a somewhat happy ending. He had dug himself into a hole and got out of it the only way he knew how: killing his boss and letting his former companions get their revenge. The dying in a bathtub of money was good imagery, since I like to imagine it was the amount of money that Jamal won, something about how money doesn’t buy happiness or the like.

And yet, despite the fact that this show has such a clichéd ending it somehow captured the heart of Oscar guys as well as lots of Americans. People going on about how Slumdog is amazing and we all should watch it. I watched it. It wasn’t amazing. If anything, I thought the Dark Knight was a better done movie. The Joker was EPIC. It was just amazing. Heck, I enjoyed Iron Man more than Slumdog. Yes, Slumdog was a better show, but it wasn’t as fun. I’ll probably never want to watch Slumdog again, but I’d watch Iron Man again.

People say that Slumdog was amazing, but I’ve seen better movies. Gladiator? Master and Commander? 3/10 to Yuma? Russell Crowe has made some amazing movies. I don’t even have to mention LotR or Star Wars (original trilogy only please) everyone knows how amazing those movies were. If Slumdog is the best thing to come out of Hollywood (and given the amount of awards and praise it received, much more than any other movie released this year or last) then I weep at the lack of talent Hollywood now has. Where have movie makers like Peter Jackson and actors like Will Smith gone? When will our next Pirates of the Carribean (not as epic as LotR, but very well done nonetheless) or Spiderman come? Will they ever come? Recently the Oscars have been doing badly in terms of making money, this is because since the last LotR there haven’t been any movies that have captured the heart of America, or the world for that matter. The best thing we can show the world is the Dark Knight, a tale of how far humanity has fallen, or Slumdog, a feel good movie that says “miracles happen”, just in a rather dramatic and well done way.

Despite all my criticisms, I did honestly enjoy Slumdog, but looking back on other movies I’ve seen, I don’t think I’d choose to watch Slumdog again over lots of other movies. I’ve seen better.

Random fact of the day: Iron Maiden truly are the Gods of Metal. :D