Make sure not to underestimate the brilliance of 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' as it proves to be an exceptional movie!
You've got to see Everything Everywhere All at Once - it's an awesome movie! I used to avoid it, thinking it was just another sci-fi film that got popular in theaters, but boy, was I mistaken. The story is really well-crafted, the visuals are stunning, the acting is top-notch, and it even tugs at your heartstrings unexpectedly. I watched it last night and was blown away. Seriously, don't make the same mistake I did. Go ahead and give it a watch. I'd easily rate it 8.5/10, heck, maybe even a 9!
It's a very polarizing movie for some reason. I really enjoyed it, so much that I've rewatched it a few times.
What I can't understand it that some people absolutely fucking loathe the movie, just visceral hatred, and I've never seen a good explanation as to why this is.
First of all, it suffers from what TV Tropes would call the Eight Deadly Words: "I don't care what happens to these people". I won't fault the acting; I feel the actors did the best they could with the writing they had. It's just that I thought the writing was extremely uncompelling and there was nothing about the characters which made me want to learn more about them or their troubles.
Secondly, I don't like the structure of the film. It's a melodrama, a type of story that I do not enjoy by default, with some plot points that are so heavily telegraphed that it sucked the energy out of the film. The multiverse structure that the film relies on was uncompelling to me. The action scenes lacked any sort of visceral impact to bring them back down to Earth; they were so obsessed with flashiness that there was nothing for me to connect with.
And thirdly, while I can enjoy absurdist humour, this film felt like it thought it was cleverer than it was throughout. I've heard a description elsewhere of this film as "nicecore Rick & Morty" and while that's awfully reductive, it still gets to the root of some of the problems I had with the film.
A few of the relationship moments felt a bit jarring to the background and some people just bounced really hard off of that contrast. It wasn't what they were expecting, and that can be very polarizing.
I enjoyed it, but wish some of the relationship moments were a but less hamfisted. Like the evil doughnut black hole thing was a clever idea, but it would have been more fun for me if it was revealed to be a doughnut in a less direct way. Someone I know hated that part enough to say "it was just a blatant relationship movie with a sci fi veneer' which is accurate.
Not sure I would watch it again even though I liked it as there doesn't seem to be more depth to discover on a rewatch.