I don't typically post things like this, but scrolling through the user reviews of this almost seems like a joke. So many constant 1/10 reviews just doesn't make sense to me. This movie is quite enjoyable. Do people just not understand it? I mean I would even understand 5/10 score, but so many lowball scores is really baffling to me.
shareYeah it was eye opening to me. And look with all do respect to folks who just didn't find this film their cup of tea or for that matter there is a polarizing effect for musical theatre film, some of the people who are claiming it is the worst film ever and are going so out of their way to make that opinion be known end up looking really stupid and ignorant on here.
shareComments about this film have been especially nasty here, even for IMDB. As Alfred Hitchcock said, "It's only a mooovie, Ingrid." But everybody with internet access is a critic now.
In my case, self-absorption is completely justified.
Ignore button means as good as dead. Shame, really.
shareI totally agree with you HR. Until a couple of days ago the only message board I had read was for Dancing with the Stars. Some of the posters on that one are really rude if anyone has a different opinion. Since that was the only board reading I had done up to that point, I thought it was just because of the nature of the show (live, celebrities, reality tv). Having read through this one and several other movies I really like, I am still amazed at the rudeness of some. Saying something like 'this movie was trash', then someone says they loved it, and the other one responds back 'then you're an idiot'. Whatever happened to respecting other people's opinions and respectfully agreeing to disagree? Guess I've grown too old.
shareI thought the same thing. Most of the people were saying that "the music sucked" or "it wasn't a kid movie." They are obviously unfamiliar with the play and unaware that the music wasn't created for the film! I did see a good review that talked about the important plot pieces that were left out (the entirety of Act II, essentially) and that made sense as a criticism because the story did lose some steam there at the end. But that person still have 7/10. I'm thinking that a lot of those reviews are people who got accounts specifically to come flame Into the Woods. Not a good representation of audience opinion!
shareI think Disney's marketing department has to take a lot of the blame on this one. They made the movie seem like a cute little fairy tale crossover, akin to Once Upon a Time. As a result they brought in a lot of kids who were destined to be bored, parents who were destined to be offended and traditional Disney fans who were destined to be disappointed. The marketing also probably drove away the kinds of people who would have really enjoyed it.
Pretty much everyone I know who was excited for this (who hadn't seen the play) ended up disappointed by it. Meanwhile, my sister who was totally uninterested and just got dragged to see it for my birthday ended up really enjoying and seeking out a live production with her husband.
Truly your wit has never been equaled. Surpassed, often, but never equaled...
I appreciate the insight behind your reply. I agree that clever marketing or as the case may be careless marketing can have everything to do with how successful a film will be. In the case of Into the Woods, I agree that an entirely different approach would have made it more successful because it would have found the right audience. I expected something quite different and its completely true that it can't help but affect your response to the movie overall.
shareI agree that an entirely different approach would have made it more successful because it would have found the right audience.
Pretty much everyone I know who was excited for this (who hadn't seen the play) ended up disappointed by it.
I agree. I was actually starting to think that the same spiteful reviewer was just posting repeatedly under different names but since that seems unrealistic, I have to assume that the general viewing public has no familiarity with the original musical. Did they even realize it was a based on a Broadway play? I guess Disney should have marketed it better. It isn't a little kid's movie at all. It reminds me of the marketing for Pan's Labyrinth, which made it look like a kids' fairy tale. In fact, certain movie rental outlets included Pan's Labyrinth in the family section.
shareFor a movie like this I always ignore both the "1" votes and the "10" votes. If you go to the vote distribution chart you will see that it has almost exactly the same number of "6" and "7" votes, meaning the most valid rating is 6.5. Personally I think even that is a bit low, but using that method you can compare movies with each other, if that is what one wants to do.
Even the top-rated movies have a bunch of "1" votes. All that means is the IMDb has a small but solid core of idiot voters.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Make a choice, to take a chance, to make a difference.
I think part of the problem is that it's Disney. People see Disney and they think they're in for a family friendly romp with talking CG animals. But this is Sondheim. And yeah, it does seem a bit suspicious that almost all the top 1-star reviews are saying the same exact thing: "the music is repetitive, and there's pedophilia". Either it's the same person posting all the reviews or everyone just copied the highest-rated review.
shareWell the music IS repetitive. I enjoyed the movie but was disappointed in most of the music and lyrics, too sing-song high-schoolish for this quality of a production. I understand completely that it originated as a stage play, which I didn't see, so I am only judging from what I saw and heard in the movie. It could have been so much better with more interesting music.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
Make a choice, to take a chance, to make a difference.
There are musical themes that are repeated and built upon as the story progresses, but there music itself and the way the themes intertwine and change with the story are quite intricate. The "children won't listen" theme first presented angrily in "Stay With Me," repeated sadly in "Lament," finally evolves to the finale "Children Will Listen" by the end of the piece. This is probably the most basic example, but there are lots of different themes which connect characters in different ways and are used for different purposes throughout the story.
Some are more obvious like the one I just described, but not all are intended to be so obvious, especially on the first listen. But they're there to create nuance and they give actors a lot to work with. So as far as the music not being interesting enough... well, I think there's clearly enough going on in the score to be deemed interesting.