MovieChat Forums > Ben X (2007) Discussion > WAY overrated!

WAY overrated!

posted 15 years ago by Borowczyk76
36 replies | jump to latest

I can't believe nobody else out there thinks this movie is too stereotypical and clumsy. Don't get me wrong, the film's basic theme showed a lot of promise, but the way it was all put together by the director practically made me cringe with discomfort. EVERY single character in the film comes off as a caricature! The bullies are only presented as mean, Ben's mother is always overly protective, BenX himself becomes cartoonish in his shyness; it felt like I was watching some lousy After School Special. The only redeeming thing about the film is the twist "happy" ending. That's it! Otherwise, I did not care for the characters at all; they made me laugh and shake my head in disbelief more than they made me think about bullying and Asperger's disease. I'm an advocate of suspension of disbelief, but I want the film to actually have something interesting to say. I came out of the movie more frustrated and confused than anything.

The flash-boom-POW editing style got on my nerves throughout the movie (how can people still enjoy this frantic MTV-style camera work and rapid, epilepsy-inducing cuts?). I wasn't watching a movie, just a rapid and aggressive succession of images that made me frown . The flashback scenes with their cheesy blurred effects made me think back to my own student films (do you really think the audience won't be able to notice the difference between the original narrative and the flashbacks? Come on!) . The character development is hackneyed and hammered relentlessly throughout the movie (yes, I get it, the bullies are not nice, he is tormented and introverted... show me something else now). I was constantly reminded of Run Lola Run while watching BenX, I was under the impression that the director borrowed many technical ideas (especially the editing and frantic pace) from this movie and used it as it's mold for his own film.

When it comes to teen angst/social misfit films, Donnie Darko is a MUCH more successful film with original ideas and themes. At least I didn't feel as if the director constantly tried to pull my strings with every twist and turn of the plot. Anyways, those were my two cents about the film. Anyone would care to discuss - and not just get into some vitriolic rant using tons of invectives simply because I didn't like the film?

[–] zotteke1986 15 years ago

Sorry, but the "twist" happy ending? There was no twist there, anyone who feels what Ben's reality is like, knows what the end will be (without giving anything away to those who haven't seen it yet). Same with the 'existence' of friends...

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

****SPOILERS**** OK, so you EXPECTED him to have all this video projection after a fake death? I didn't. And well, without getting into details... I can tell you that I DO know what "BenX" might have gone through and NO, I wasn't expecting this... I was expecting him to go on a shooting rampage or something similar (like he dreams of doing in his "game" world). This would have been a much worse ending than the one we get in the film. Regardless, I still think the movie is garbage though.

[–] GamblinMike 15 years ago

"garbage" but not "WAY overrated". The film is good though.

Films I'm looking forward to see:

The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick)-2009
Public Enemies (Michael Mann)-2009
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus (Terry Gilliam)-2009
The Overcoat (Yuri Norstein) year?

[–] FireMinstrel 15 years ago

You'd probably like "Klass" better.

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

Never heard of it, but I made a little research on IMDB and it already looks MUCH better than BenX so I will try and hunt it down. Thanks for the tip.

[–] djsnafu23 12 years ago

Klass WAS better for sure! As was Bully..

....

http://soundcloud.com/dj-snafu-bankrupt-euros

Coz lifes too short to listen to Madlib

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ivan_thechemist13 15 years ago

If you have EVER been in the least bit of similar situation, you would have understood the film. It is not made to be perfectly shot star wars/lotr movie. It is made to show something else - the life and mind of people who aren't like the rest. So if you have EVER lost your life in a game, been bullied in school for what you are or though/tried suicide you will find this movie not only good. You will find it scary. Not frightening. Not bloody. Not violent. Just scary how cruel the world can be to people that doesn't fit in it. And then, personally for me, it became one hell of a horror movie. SAW, Texas chainsaw..., grudge, ring and etc. are sissies. This was REAL horror. And the good/bad thing is that it is based on real story.

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

Buddy... believe me, I've been in the same situation... sometimes even worse than what is depicted on screen... and this movie is still absolute garbage IMHO. It's not a horror movie, it's not a drama... it's just a story with potential spoiled by bad direction and bad writing. I'm glad to see it was a life affirming flick for you, but I felt I wasted 90 minutes of my life watching it.

[–] projectcyclops 15 years ago

What can I say except that I agree completely with m_duval76 on all their points. A terrible mish-mash of ideas that really becomes embarrassing after the first 10 minutes.

---

Captain Murphy: Way to go Sparks, you broke the monitor and you're dead. Happy?

[–] aesthetes_anon 15 years ago

I'm slightly confused about the idea that all the characters are caricatures - go and meet some kids that age, they are caricatures, that's what being that age is about: blending into the pack.

Personally I thought this was a great (if slightly harrowing) piece of filmmaking.

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

Please! Each character is straight out of a lousy TV movie. You'll never make me believe kids and people out there are caricatures. They might act that way in social circles, but everyone's got a second more private side. In BenX, all we see is the one side... ALL THE TIME! now if that isn't caricature, I don't know what is... and neither do you.

[–] Linopnk 15 years ago

Heh, well, you have to take into account that you only see the characters in certain situations.
The bullies for examples you only see bullying, or behaving like morons. Of course they will appear like stereotypes, because that's just what they are when they act as such.
Should they have followed those characters around more, I'm sure they would have appeared deeper than just that, but I don't see how that would have been relevant to the story.
To me they appeared believable, and I've had unfortunate encounters with those kind of people in real life, in Belgium. Although I'll admit that those two were probably the weakest in their acting performance in this particular film.
To me a lot of people out there are caricatures. Or at least that's the only side of them they show. Why would a movie have to show more than that? When clearly the whole movie circles around Ben's world, and his perception of it.
I've also read some comments while browsing these forums about the christian morality in this film. from my experience that's exactly the state of mind of a majority of people in Belgium. I myself am a convinced atheist, but either I am an exception, or I haven't had the chance to meet many.
Also, i fail to see the point you're trying to make bringing up Donnie Darko, a movie which I enjoyed also. The only resemblance to me seems to be that both main characters have a somewhat distorted view of reality, but the plots focus on very different things in these two movies.
I'm not saying you should enjoy the movie, if you don't that's a perfectly valid opinion. But obviously it's nothing more than that, since a lot of people do seem to enjoy it.

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

If you re-read all my posts, you might notice that I mostly hate this movie because I thought it was badly made (Donnie Darko might not have been the best comparison, I agree, but as another film about a troubled teen, it's certainly far more interesting and well crafted). To me, no matter how interesting and original a film's subject or theme might be, if it looks as though it were made by a hyperactive MTV cameraman, you've lost me. That's just not good cinema. Same goes for the first layer characterization. The point is driven in our faces throughout the film and adds absolutely nothing to the story from start to finish. After 15 minutes, you could stop the film and get as much from it as if you would have seen the whole thing. Good cinema is cinema that explores it's characters and their emotions, shows different facets and if it DOES use caricature, than it tries to be original about it. Ben X is a retreading of practically every single cinematic cliche and fails at making it's characters interesting. You can like the film, the whole world can like the film, but popularity does not a good film make.

[–] kire1975 11 years ago

you have an answer for everything

that makes YOU a caricature

[–] Eva_Nazarova 15 years ago

It is not the film that is powerful, it is the subject of the film. The film is indeed clumsy, unrealistic, and overacted. However, it's great that cinema can consider such subjects as Autism/Aspergers, and other delicate issues - Cinema is the most popular medium, so I hope people can learn at least through films.

[–] thespread 15 years ago

I largely agree with you, but the film wasn't terrible. I'd give it a seven. For instance, I kind of liked it's visual style. It was bright and inventive, and you could tell they spent a bit of money on it. But then I am part of the MTV generation. Flashy lights and loud noises do have that sort of effect on me.

I get the feeling that had I seen this movie a couple years ago, when I was going through all that adolecent secondary school hell, it might have had more of an effect on me, but looking at it now I can see it's trying to make an important point but it's greatly undermined by a sloppy narrative. For instance, (*spoilers*) Ben 10s parent's complicity in what he did towards the end just ruined any sense of realism in what he was doing. If he was acting alone it might have felt a litle more believable, but his plan was just too wacky for anyone else to get involved with and it still feel plausible. But the real head in my hands moment came with that girl (Scarlette?). While the twist was pretty obvious for anyone paying attention it was still a relief to find she was a girl of his own creation, because the stuff she was spouting was just too corny. That, and she was such a generic 'dream girl'; impossibly pretty, utterly out of his league and it's a struggle seeing her spending hours online playing MMO's. OK, she was made up to fulfil Ben's desires, but I get the feeling the film makers wanted the audience to believe she was real throughout the third act for the ending to have any impact at all, but because she was so implausibly perfect they just failed to do so.

There were a bunch of other niggles too. Still, if you look past them, what's there is a very decent movie. The first half was good, and I thought the bit in the park with the two bullies was incredible, made me mad. It's just a shame that the strong aspects were tarnished by the scripts shortcomings.

No, no. Psychopaths kill for no reason. I kill for money. It's a job. That didn't come out right.

[–] MidgardDragon99 15 years ago

Every movie on IMDb has a "OMG SO OVERRATED I LIK BETTER MOVIES!" topic. That's all anyone reading this topic and wondering if the movie is indeed overrated or really worth a 7.7/10 needs to know before making their decision. In short, never listen to an "overrated" IMDb post (the same goes for "omg racist", "omg sexist", and "omg shouldnt be on teh top 250" posts).

WALLEForum.com

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

What?

[–] joaaquiiin 15 years ago

Yes! I totally agree with you.

The way the director shot the movie ruined it almost completely.
By the way, Donnie Darko is a masterpiece.

[–] modica 15 years ago

The bullying thing was very accurate. Bullies are cruel and fierce. The purpose of the movie was to show how cruel people can be. If we saw all the shades of the human condition this movie would not have worked. Should you have been disturbed? Absolutely, and if you weren't you must be a bully.

[–] aristeian 15 years ago

I don't agree at all that this movie was overrated unless you already decided it would be derivative and not new and trying to hard before you even began watching.

I think I've come to a basic conclusion about films though - probably not anything very new - but I'm just so sick of people saying movies are overrated and I think I've finally figured it out.

I kinda hated both Donnie Darko and Run Lola Run. I think though, the real reason why I disliked them so was because everyone kept telling me how "awesome" and "artistic" they were. It got to the point that when I finally watched them, I was so over the films before I even gave them a try. And even though I tried to give them a fair chance, I think my mind pounced on every gimmick and silly camera angle and thought, "oh here we go, trying to be all artsy, I guess this what everyone's talking about" And now I'll never tell people I like those movies and secretly, kind of still dislike anyone who raves about them.

But the truth is there was nothing Donnie Darko and Run Lola could have done to save themselves from the hype surrounding them, they were doomed before I even turned on the telly.

On the other hand, I approached films like Hallam Foe and BenX and other random movies (City of Lost Children comes to mind too) knowing absolutely nothing about them but just randomly watching them on Netflix or with my bf because they were available. And, amazingly, these movies I adore. Perhaps because I watched them with new eyes and could really immerse myself in them without having any idea what to expect. I really connected immediately and was engaged as soon as BenX began; but that probably wouldn't have been the case if I came here instead and read these horrible and annoying "OVERRATED" reviews and was expected it to be something "different."

So my point I guess, is do yourself a favor, and don't listen to other people because they'll only ruin movies for you. (And I've noticed this in other people too)

[–] knkwhitaker 15 years ago

The only thing more common on the IMDB message boards than people calling films "overrated" are the people who jump on certain films to make them feel like they are special for finding some cool or unique film. After I finished this movie I said to my wife "I guarantee this is highly rated on IMDB and that the posters are going off on how unique and amazing the movie is." Thankfully IMDB never disappoints.

How does this get a 7.7? The direction is fairly average, the writing is poor and the acting is laughably awful. I also thought the ending was beyond ridiculous. Some of that can be forgiven in a film that is trying something new and is shedding light on a serious issue like this film is attempting to. However, having all of those weaknesses in one film is too much to overcome and I haven't even mentioned the worst part of all....the faux interviews. Seriously, if your "twist" is so bad that you need to sell it with interviews to the camera then you have a fairly weak script. I'm no fan of narration but I would take that 100 times over before going with the faux interview. So bad.

Now I can certainly understand when you really relate to a movie it connects in a very powerful way. If that applies to you then I'm sure this movie is quite likable. However, to act like this film is deserving of high praise just on the merits of the film itself, let alone a 7.7 rating is the very definition of overrated imho. That being said....if you love the film then I am very happy for you and hope that my post does nothing to diminish that love whatsoever. I have a few films that I love despite their weaknesses as well so this post was in no way intended to make anyone feel that they aren't entitled to a differing view point;-)

[–] theswikscomingsoon 14 years ago

Some of you act as if there is a criteria in which to give a rating.... was the camera still (1) point, how was the directing (1) point, etc...I don't believe most people are on here trying to give a professional unbiased rating of a movie based on points, besides comments rating it is the only way to express how their experience with the film was... Consider what people are going through, or possibly how there day went, maybe watching it in a certain state of mind, where or who they watched it with, there are plenty of things that can alter the experience... if you feel it is the worst movie you ever seen then consider yourself fortunate.

[–] waynebigguns 15 years ago

The only redeeming thing about the film is the twist "happy" ending.

No, the only redeeming thing is the cute girl. Apart from that I completely agree with you.