Jack says:Last month we read The Great Gatsby a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Book is about the wealthy Jay Gatsby trying to woo his selfish love interest Daisy Buchanan, set in New York City in the 1920’s. The book was so great, it would be hard for anyone to make a film that compares to it. Now that I have finally seen the high budget interpretation directed by Baz Luhrman, I am having a hard time deciding if it was good or bad. At least I can say it was enjoyable to watch. The acting was good for the most part, the music and cinematography were great, and Leonardo Dicaprio put on a stunning performance as Jay Gatsby. But this movie was no where near as good as the book. And my reason for that was that the storyline was changed dramatically, and the film lacked originality.
The first error made was that Tobey Maguire was cast as Nick Carraway. For the record, Tobey Maguire is a terrible actor. He was the main reason the acting fell short of exceptional. Watch one of his movies, you’ll see what I mean. Anyway, Nick Carraway starts off as the narrator just like the book…. but in a sanitarium! What? Really? In the book, the reader doesn’t know where the narrator (Nick Carraway ) is at the time. This first change of the storyline made almost no sense and didn’t even need to happen.
The second problem I had was that the script didn’t include the wonderful lines and short scenes that made the book so good. I was totally confused by this move and frustrated because if these scenes and lines were put into the film, this movie might have gotten some of my consideration for the Academy Awards next year. But no, not one of those scenes were incorporated into the movie, like the hilarious scene when a drunk man drives into a ditch in Gatsby’s driveway, or my favorite line from the book, when Gatsby is talking about Daisy. Gatsby says ” Her voice is full of money” showing how selfish and corrupt Daisy really is. I say that it would have been safe to film the movie line for line and scene for scene, right out of the book.
My final critique is that Baz Luhrman Made the movie exactly like he made Moulin Rouge. Outrageous scenes, tragic endings, a big city. I think that Luhrman could have gone in a slightly different direction. Originality is something this movie needed and it didn’t get what it deserved. I just couldn’t get Moulin Rouge out of my head.
Overall I give this movie 2.5/5 stars. The pros were good acting and superb musical and visual achievements.The cons were bashing the storyline and lack of originality. I was let down.
Payton says: Last Friday we saw ‘The Great Gatsby’. We had just finished reading the book, and the movie did not live up to my expectations. The CGI was terrible, and did not look realistic at all. However, we soon realized that the movie was filmed to be in 3D. We saw it in 2D and, in my opinion, ‘The Great Gatsby’ is not exactly the kind of movie I would would expect to see in 3D. Leonardo DiCaprio (Gatsby) was constantly slipping in and out of the WRONG accent! In the book, Gatsby is a wealthy man living on Long Island, New York. I was surprised to hear an occasional Southern accent from DiCaprio. I did not enjoy Tobey McGuire’s performance as Nick Carraway, but then again when have I enjoyed Tobey McGuire’s performance as anyone? Also, they twisted the story and put Nick in a sanitorium where he narrated the story to a therapist. Not only was this a waste of time, and a horibble couple of scenes, but it never happened in the book! Despite all the kinks in this movie, there were a few good scenes. When Gatsby (DiCaprio) introduces himself to Nick (McGuire), he turns around and fireworks go off behind him. It was a great scene, and perfectly described how I imagined Gatsby to be in the book. I did not enjoy ‘The Great Gatsby’. I give it 1/5 stars for poor cinematography, straying away from the original story line and bad casting. ★☆☆☆☆
Ava says: The movie “The Great Gatsby” is bad. I loved the book but the movie didn’t live up to the standerds of the book. In the book you felt connected to the characters. In the movie you’re just watching the screen and you don’t have any emotion towards the characters at all. The acting was mediocre but it could have been better if they had chosen different actors they didn’t do a very good job with that part. The directing was very poor. For example they cut scenes short,didn’t explain things very well and they wasted time showing boring scenes when they could have been explaining details from the story. My favorite scene is when Leonardo Dicaprio says that he is Gatsby and the fireworks go off behind him. It was done very well but that was the only part of the movie I liked and it was not even 10 seconds long. My favorite character was Tom, Joel Edgerton. He was a great actor and seemed to have known the part well. All in all I think they could have done a better job. It was a very big disappointment to me. Its a great book and it deserves a great movie this movie, sadly, did not meet the standards of the book. I would rate this movie 1 out of 5 stars.
The Galileo School 