Review of Upside Down (2012) by Inoue T — 09 Feb 2013

Terrible direction. The trailer was extremely deceiving. While the concept is interesting enough, the story is underdeveloped and all over the place. Too many things are jammed into what is supposed to be a straightforward sci-fi love story.

The actors tried their best, but the script is full of trite statements (and wtf is that with rhyming bob). Pacing is inconsistent and left out a lot of important build-up hence what should've been emotional scenes just come off baffling. 'Why is the he/she crying like that? Oh right, they're supposed to be super best friends except we haven't seen them interact in such a manner until now.' The movie should've cut several unimportant story lines (that were eventually abandoned anyway) and focused on the 'romance' between the lead actors, because as it is now, one gets a creeper/obsessed/unable-to-move-on vibe from Sturgess' character. I think Juan Solanas had an okay story but he had trouble putting it into a movie.

Still, I'd recommend it for people wanting to watch something while high or drunk. It presents some beautiful opportunities for debates on the physics (and some biology) of the story (i.e. mid-air rotating copulation etc.).

TL;DR: Watch with pot.