Here you have the psychopathic, rapist, murder, animal murderer, lunatic Sebastian Caine; Then you have Linda and Matt, Linda who cheated on Sebastian for Matt & Matt who wasn't a saint himself. He thought he was better than Sebastian from day one even before Sebastian turned into a lunatic. So who were you rooting for?
You're the garbage man No I just take out the trash
The film's biggest problem it couldn't decide on why should the audience be rooting for these characters.
As said before Verhoeven often tries too hard to make a lot of his characters not totally good for some reason or another.
Here's a thread on why is the film trying to make the characters dicks.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0164052/board/thread/232945823
People are 'not totally good', we're all flawed and it's more credible to portray that. There's nothing wrong with Shue and Brolin's relationship - they weren't cheating - but they were weak for going along with Sebastian and not alerting the government (quite understandably though).
Carter exhibited smutty sex-pest inclinations, Frank was somewhat cowardly happy to let Carter die. The animal-lover was somewhat of a cow herself. The black woman was the only one who wasn't a 'sinner' in some way, but Verhoeven killed her first for being black.
Having all the characters not totally nice is a curious European thing, it doesn't quite work in the American good vs evil routine.
shareKevin Bacon is one of the most underrated actors ever right up there with Kurt Russell. How Bacon hasn't won an Oscar yet is beyond me.
You're the garbage man No I just take out the trash
Kinda wish they had better characterizations for Brolin and Shue, I feel the love affair between them was nothing but a excuse for sex for the film brought on by Verhoeven but all it did was sabotage them in the audience's mind, they made them came off as cold and unsympathetic.
shareSebastian is living the American Dream. He gets to do what every red-blooded boy would do if he could get away with it. He gets to creep on women and fondle their breasts without them knowing he's there. He can sneak into any shower and peep his eyeballs out. He gets to sneak into his gorgeous neighbor's apartment and having his wicked way with her. He is living the dream!
I was totally on his side all the way. You go boy!
http://crookedfingerfilmreviews.blogspot.com
I thought it was pretty obvious you were supposed to root for everyone but Sebastian. Linda and Matt may be portrayed as flawed people, but they're ultimate decent folk who are trying to contribute to a world-altering scientific breakthrough.
And FURTHERMORE, this is my signature! SERIOUSLY! Did you think I was still talking about my point?
Yeah, it was definitely bad taste to openly bang another co-worker of a guy you just dumped. Well, it wasn't open to Sebastian, but, they were leaving the lab and going home banging out, while he's stuck in there like a lab rat.
Out of these three, there were no clear and away 'heroes' here.
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When we're thinking about our own brain, would that be a mental paradox??
Linda & Matt sleeping together behind Sebastian's back was really just an excuse for on screen sex.
shareWhile Linda was wisely trying to keep her relationship with Matthew secret, they weren't doing anything behind Sebastian's back since Linda was Sebastian's ex-girlfriend. It's none of his business who she's seeing or not seeing.
shareActually looking back at the film the characters are pretty badly written.
share