Where the Wild Things are

[kevin13hem]

Suprised I don't already see a thread, given the amount of hype Jeff gave it. I was perhaps equally excited, and just got back from seeing it.

I honestly don't know how I feel about it.

What about you guys?

[tsmith15]

To be fair it has only been out two days. Anyway, I'm gonna see it some time in the next week, although I never read the book so I don't know if it will connect to me on that really emotional level that some people are talking about. That said, I'm pretty sure just from the trailer and the history that it's gonna get nominated for Best Picture.

[stubadub]

Loved it. I don't think you need to have read the book for this to connect with you emotionally. Having experienced childhood itself will be enough for many viewers.

I'm curious to see how this movie is perceived by the public. Most people I know with young children were planning to take them, and I can't imagine that was very successful. I bet a lot of people are complaining right now that it wasn't very good as a family film.

[masherscf]

Given that the book is slightly less deep than "Green Eggs and Ham", I wouldn't worry about reading the book first.

[alicelikesme]

I felt that the first half of the film was absolutely amazing. I found myself smiling uncontrolably, but the second half really fell short for me. Plus, everyone I went with left the theater going "That was the most boring movie I've ever seen". I don't think this movie will go over very well with the general public.

Also, not being aware of the voice cast, the whole time I kept going "Is that Tony Soprano?".

[mr-schickadance]

The movie was visually impressive, but that's about it. I thought it was very boring and bland. Took me a little while to not picture Tony Soprano every time Carol talked. I really wanted to like this movie but in the end, the trailer made it seem a lot more "epic and fun" than it actually was.

[Starthorn]

It looked nice to the eye but that was about it.

I never read the books. Is there something the books filled in for me to "get" this movie?

[masherscf]

It looked nice to the eye but that was about it.

I never read the books. Is there something the books filled in for me to "get" this movie?

The "book", "Where the With Things Are" is about 12-pages...not all of which have text. At ten sentences, this thread is longer than the book. It takes be about three-minutes to read it to my Five-year-old daughter. It's really all about pictures and imagination. Let the rumpus begin.

[Starthorn]

from what people were saying it seemed like there was more to the movie. Like each monster represented something in the boys life, and the hardship of only having one parent.

Since this is not the case, I think this movie kinda sucked.

[masherscf]

The book is thought to be a metaphor for a temper tantrum. But Max in the book was maybe five years old. There's not enough for a movie there so they had to expand the context,

[kevin13hem]

from what people were saying it seemed like there was more to the movie. Like each monster represented something in the boys life, and the hardship of only having one parent.

Since this is not the case, I think this movie kinda sucked.

But this is the case, and the movie was quite good. Almost everything that happened in the land of the Wild Things was represented something. The movie is about childhood and imagination, among other things. Its a pretty artistic movie, and I think very personal. I loved it.

[stubadub]

from what people were saying it seemed like there was more to the movie. Like each monster represented something in the boys life, and the hardship of only having one parent.

Since this is not the case, I think this movie kinda sucked.

Each of the Wild Things represents a different emotional state that he experiences, and most of those are very apparent at the beginning of the film before he goes to live with the Wild Things. I thought that first half hour was really effective at expressing the difficulty of being a child.

His time with the Wild Things is how he, at least temporarily, copes with those emotions. At least that's how I perceived it.

I imagine a lot of people will be dissatisfied with the movie because it didn't meet their expectation, but I'm very happy Spike Jonze stuck to his guns.

[suurge]

Each of the Wild Things represents a different emotional state that he experiences, and most of those are very apparent at the beginning of the film before he goes to live with the Wild Things. I thought that first half hour was really effective at expressing the difficulty of being a child.

His time with the Wild Things is how he, at least temporarily, copes with those emotions. At least that's how I perceived it.

I imagine a lot of people will be dissatisfied with the movie because it didn't meet their expectation, but I'm very happy Spike Jonze stuck to his guns.

I agree. I really liked the movie, it was beautiful to look at, and I had a big smile on my face throughout most of it. I pretty much loved the soundtrack, thought it went great with the film. I also thought the kid was great in his part.

[diane]

Well this movie made me cry. It might be because it hits home for me. The kid went through that phase, even at one point saying "Make me food woman".

Having my own little Max, and knowing all the trouble he had with the divorce and my issues with becoming a single mom, it really worked those heart strings for me.

Now granted there was much that worked for me, the sleeping in the pile aka cuddle time, the design and costumes, the child who played Max, even the look on Keener's face at the end of the movie as she just stares at her son with total love, some stuff was off.

It dragged at points, wasn't always coherent in flow, and the arm thing was a bit much. Trust me, it got the point across to the kids in the audience actually old enough to get the connection between destroying other peoples stuff, hitting and what Carol did, but still, little much. And most of all, every time Carol got angry I got pulled out of Where the Wild Things Are and think about Tony Soprano getting ticked. Oh, and sometimes the music seemed too there.

But even with all these criticisms, I still really liked it. Granted how much is do to the unique relatability to my life, I don't know. I am not that self aware to be able to separate out that much.

[PsyKoWeeZeL]

I had such high hopes for this movie, almost unfairly high so I'll give them a free pass that they probably couldn't have done anything to meet them.

That said, I really did like the movie as it progressed, but I wasn't very happy at the ending. I thought it was somewhat abrupt and perhaps a little bit of a cop out, bordering on the "it was all a dream so nothing really happened" -- I understand that this was how the book went, but I kinda wish the movie took another 10-15 minutes to show how Max developed and grew from the monsters and how his life is (hopefully improved) after his encounter with them.

I also made a point to read through the book at the bookstore maybe 10 minutes before Curtains up, and was impressed that the writers took the time to rip dialog straight from the book (There were only one or two sentences, but if you were on the ball you could catch them.), so kudos to staying true to the material there.

[masterevilace]

The movie wasn't as surreal as the trailers made it seem... so I had really high hopes. I was satisfied but letdown at the same time.

I don't really feel that I know what the director was going for... I feel like it's somewhat open to interpretation, which in this case I feel is somewhat of a bad thing (you're telling a story, here).

I felt like the main thing in the movie was just showing how we all think as kids. Max always had the solution. He always thought he was right. As it turned out, all his decisions were usually bad ones... and he learns from them.

I feel like the emotions were kind of all over the place as times. The desert scene from the trailer was very emotional, in my opinion, but in the actual movie it comes right after a different scene, and I don't feel it set you up for the desert scene. I think the scene before it was happy.. it didn't transition like I had hoped, and it killed the feeling I wanted.

A lot of scenes I feel completely missed the ball... a lot of scenes where I felt Max would have REALLY responded to, he didn't. He just stared blankly. Such as the departure at the end.. the howling somewhat made up for it, but not quite.

Overall I think this movie isn't for kids.. but for people to look back on their childhood. It's done well

[smoke_me_a_kipper]

. I never read the book *sigh* too old I guess. So I read it before deciding to go to the movie. The book is short and simple, I'll skip.