Review of Get Out (2017) by Gogogo21 — 02 Jun 2017

Contrary to the many takes and reviews that this movie has received, this movie is neither enlightening, fresh or most importantly, entertaining as a whole. The most dissappointing aspect of the movie is that the director actually succeeds in capturing the proper mood of eeriness that hooks the interest of the audience when watching a movie of this category. Unfortunately, the movie crashes and burns when all the pieces start coming together - or rather does NOT come together. The symbolism comes hard and heavy, and many audiences will already know the racial undertones that the plot conveys. It is actually solidly acted with all the actors going full bore into their respective characters, and the story creates the mood of off kilter discomfort very well when it comes to the interactions between the straight laced protagonist and the surrounding cast.

However the movie devolves into a series of illogical missteps that completely undermines the intent of the movie. Nothing is more dissapointing than seeing a movie start off with great promise and anticipation for a satisfying conclusion, than to see it totally fall apart at the wheels no sooner than the start of the second act, and this is precisely when this movie loses its appeal completely.

Serious, possibly thought provoking situations foreshadowed at the start of the movie break down into outright buffoonery more akin to a Wayans brothers Scary Movie plot. One particular development is a shark-jumping moment that makes the movie go from psychological thriller to full on science fiction. Many of these twists and the direction that the movie goes into seem to have been to make a symbolic or overt social commentary, something I understand is a point the film is attempting to create. However, the method is clumsy and ridiculously heavy handed. The most disappointing part is that the commentary is on point - but the sacrifice made to story, plot and logic is so insulting to the audience that the imagery is dulled to an afterthought. Many guides to the hidden meanings of this film exist, but as a movie watcher, should we really need to have a guide book to a story in order for it to make any semblance of sense?

I am fairly harsh on this movie because it is one of those films where the initial plot is interesting enough to capture you, you invest your time to learn more, and the result is a slap in the face. You feel cheaply tricked by the time the end credits roll. Most importantly, the subject matter that this movie explores deserves quite a bit more than this schlock.