r/moviecritic • u/TheFilmRoomPod • 1d ago
Why is Digger so divisive?
I’ve noticed a pretty big split in reactions to Digger. Some people talk about it like it’s a masterpiece, while others seem to really dislike it or find it hard to connect with.
I can honestly see both sides. There are elements I understand people loving, but I also get why others might strongly push back against it.
For those who have seen it, where do you land?
What do you think makes Digger great, and what do you think does not work about it?
I’m especially curious to hear from both sides: people who think it deserves the praise, and people who bounced off it completely.
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u/EDPZ 1d ago
I haven't seen it, the trailers just look visually disgusting if that makes sense. The way all the sets look, the lighting, Cruise's make up, the cat, it all just looks so visually repulsive.
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u/Spiritual-Ad8062 1d ago
There’s a reason it looks like that.
I can’t say more without giving away spoilers.
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u/CauliflowerStrong510 1d ago
Thers a reason. Go see it. My favorite movie experience this year so far.
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u/youcanreachmenow 1d ago
Go watch it, there is a reason its like that. I saw it last night, it was very good. The first 5 minutes were a bit wtf
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u/uusrikas 21h ago
When a film looks ugly and acting seems like a hobby theater satire and the film gets 50% rotten tomatoes, it will be something I maybe watch on streaming five years later
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u/youcanreachmenow 21h ago
Sure up to you. But I personally think you are missing out.
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u/bigoldfatman1 1d ago
This. Every once in a while there’s takes that you have internally but can’t find the way to verbalize them or make sense until you see someone else write or say it. This is one of those times idk passed couple times I saw the trailer come on i just dread the 45 seconds lol
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u/dem4life71 1d ago
This is what I’ve been saying and been downvoted for it. A trailer is supposed to make the viewer WANT to see the film. Every clip looked so disgusting that I can’t imagine sitting through hours of it.
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u/LiamKneeSon808 1d ago
Republicans don't like looking in the mirror is my assumption
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u/Fit-Ranger8895 1d ago
It’s by choice. Go watch it. The first 40 mins will be difficult. And then it will make sense. But I get it.
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u/AnObtuseOctopus 1d ago
I still have no idea wtf this movie even is. The marketing has been abysmal. I've seen 1 short trailer of him washing an almost dead looking cat and another short trailer of him jumping up and grabbing a shovel..
Neither of these have me knowing what to expect, let alone what genre of movie it even is.
I was looking up popular comedies from this year and digger came up, so, I'm completely lost now.
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u/robotic-ghost 1d ago
Personally, I find that refreshing because trailers these days have an unfortunate tendency to tell the entire story of the whole movie in a minute and a half.
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u/PoopyInThePeePeeHole 1d ago
If they are trying to be mysterious and lean on Cruise somehow being all I need to know to want to go see the movie... Yeah, they have failed SPECTACULARLY.
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u/UnderstandingOdd679 1d ago
I kind of got the impression it was Cruise trying to go over the top (since people like his Tropic Thunder character), trying to channel a little Daniel Day-Lewis from There Will Be Blood for an awards run, put into a Don’t Look Up climate satire along with some Wes Anderson Astroid City story within a play within a movie.
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u/showtime218 23h ago
Worked just fine for me. He’s the biggest movie star in the world. What more do you need?
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u/youcanreachmenow 1d ago
You should watch it. I saw it last night and it is a great movie. The trailer is deliberately ambigious because its not what you expect
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u/AnObtuseOctopus 1d ago
Can you atleast tell me the genre?
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u/youcanreachmenow 1d ago
Dark comedy.
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u/AnObtuseOctopus 1d ago
Ok cool, that's something I could get into, I'll watch it.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Loss770 1d ago
I thought it was a baseball movie from the trailer. Cant say it went on my radar to go see it
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u/No_Secret8767 18h ago
Maybe this is a foreign issue, since I’m in the uk, but I felt exactly clear on what the film was about from the trailers. And if I didn’t feel clear, I would’ve just read an article about it, which there was plenty of
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u/kittensmakemehappy08 6h ago
For me it was a mixture of Gilliam, Coen Brothers and Wes Anderson with none of the heart, humor, or whimsy.
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u/Antique-Knowledge-80 1d ago
I'm convinced Big Oil paid off the film critics to drag it haha. Honestly, I'm shocked by how much mainstream film critics seem to hate it. It's a movie that takes some risks and is aware of its heavy-handed messaging. A lot of other films do similar and aren't panned like this.
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u/gnalon 14h ago
Another interesting thing is that it flips the typical ‘disaster’ movie script where the emotional reactions of the characters are less grounded in reality (and of course we gradually see the reason for this) but the effects of the disaster itself are more grounded.
It is more frightening that the disaster is shown explicitly not to be world-ending but one that the ruling class will employ totalitarian means to downplay as it’s happening and then decades later they will feel comfortable enough to lampoon their role in it to show they’re cool and in on the joke.
Then as a satire itself it is harsh (which you have to be, if you made something like Veep these days that wouldn’t really qualify as satire because it would be a toned-down version of the real world) but uses narrative tricks to distance itself from the message.
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u/bunq 13h ago edited 13h ago
The marketing wasn’t nearly as brave as the message of the movie, so moviegoers didn’t know what they were going to see.
The topic unfortunately remains to be a very divisive one. People who don’t know what they are in for but go just for Cruise may be upset by the plot.
American audiences are used to a heroes journey in cinema with a hero and a villian and a happy ending. This is not that kind of movie. In fact, it points the finger at the audience at times, which some may take offense to on their leisure time.
Lastly, I won’t say opinions were bought, but the rich/powerful wouldn’t want this movie to be a successful movie because it would reinforce certain unwanted narratives. For this reason i’m surprised the movie was even made, let alone released.
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u/Grumpy_Girl_1 3h ago
This!! I can’t think of any other reason for the terrible reviews. I loved the parody on today’s administration. I can only think this is being blocked by MAGA supporters.
Such a creative film…was very happy I watched it.
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u/Dave_Fincher 1d ago
Loved it. Went in knowing very little. I only like cruise when he's not himself. That's the case here. He was excellent. The story was interesting and then there's that switch. I was completely thrown but still curious. And then spent the rest of the movie juggling and being thrown by forgetting whether I'm in the movie or the twist and how it all came together at the end.
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u/Ok_Guitar7980 1d ago
I saw the movie today. Its a big swing for sure. The marketing is abysmal because it doesn't in any way indicate what the movie actually is, but instead depicts a movie that a great many people don't want to see. And even the people who realize from the marketing that its supposed to be satire, the movie is actually NOT satirizing what the trailer shows it to be. Leaving the people who did want to see what was in the trailer disappointed because its actually not that.
The movie is self-sabotaged by its own marketing, but if marketed different, even less people would probably want to see it.
I liked Cruise's and Plemmons' acting. But the few good ideas from the movie just didnt land well due to poor execution.
For those wondering about a lot of the Birdman comparisons here in the comments, it definitely had vibes like that, but is very different. IMO Birdman was a lot more cohesive and felt like it knew what it wanted to be. Digger felt like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be, so it tried to be everything, and most of it didnt work.
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u/theme69 1d ago
I’m confused. Does Reddit want trailers that spoil the movie or trailers that don’t
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u/Eff-it-im-commenting 21h ago
Welcome to humans. The most infuriatingly stupid and brilliant piles of shit that ever messed up the world that it made amazing in the first place
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u/Sivy17 1d ago
If I thought Birdman was blowhard shit, do you think I'd enjoy Digger? I haven't been sold on an Inarritu joint yet.
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u/ragnarockette 1d ago
I didn’t like Birdman and loved Digger. However, Digger is absolutely “blowhard shit.”
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u/temblors 15h ago edited 15h ago
Satire just doesn't hit the same way anymore, ever since real life kicked the speedrun towards maximum clown show absurdity into high gear. A lot of people out there don't want to catch even a tiny whiff of "The Message" in their entertainment/escapism and there's definitely some of that vibe coming through in the trailers.
Another film that kind of reminds me of this same sort of phenomenon is Eddington, also divisive at the time and many people seemed totally befuddled by it for some reason. Had it been released a year or two sooner, it might have been lauded as a brilliant work of art.
Whether Digger actually does fit in this same category or not is probably of secondary importance because regardless it seems like people are reacting as if it were. Personally, I think the marketing they spent so much oｎ was the source of most of the problem.
I was almost instantaneously turned off when I saw the first ad for Digger, like in the first few seconds it was an instinctive "Nope!" that came from like reptile brain. Whatever went on with the marketing idk but seriously total epic fail.
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u/PhilosophyKitchen871 13h ago
Listening to the credit music after after "level 4" announcement only for our credit music to abruptly stop with the same "level 4" announcement with golden in my opinion. I know many people won't get the message because you're right. We live in Eddington. We live in Digger. Those pieces of media aren't satire at this point, those movies are mirrors. Just like Don't look up
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u/ihaveacrushonmercy 13h ago
I agree with every point you made, but I also want to say never underestimate the ick people have for uncanny valley (Tom Cruise in an old man mask). I think it just reminds people of that skit from I Think You Should Leave.
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u/taway9925881 9h ago
Titkok and Shitsagram and Fakebook have fried people's brains and turned them into sheeple zombies.
They won't get satire if it slapped them in the face. And it's fashionable to be outraged at just about anything.
This movie is a benchmark in how stories should be and will be told. A certified cult classic in the future.
This is Tom Cruise at his absolute best.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Fig5688 9h ago
Agreed. Somewhere along the way we lost our ability to understand and appreciate satire. “Sheepie Zombies”..lol
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u/No-Instruction-8964 9h ago
People can understand the satire and still not think something is great, it doesn't always mean they didn't understand it
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u/Phillzster 1d ago
Im not sure if I liked it or not beacuse for me it was one of those movies where you walk out of the cimena and say to yourself what did I just watch
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u/Hayes4prez 1d ago
I’m going tomorrow but hearing that makes me believe I’m going to like it. I want movies taking artistic risks.
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u/Affectionate_Yam7842 1d ago
Also it's nice to let a movie simmer in your mind, memorable isnt the end all be all, but it often is.
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u/l337sponge 1d ago
99% of people will hate this movie because Digger is just a mirror of everyone as a whole. Nobody wants to admit they are Digger. 11/10 film.
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u/rogerworkman623 1d ago
Honestly, most of the “reactions” to this movie I’ve seen online seem to be from people who didn’t see it. Plus people reveling in the fact that it had a shitty opening weekend, which is another weird thing the internet does now.
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u/endogenix1 1d ago
I absolutely loved it and so did my wife. When the reveal that what we have been watching for the first half hour was part of a stage production I was taken out of the experience for a bit but I was drawn back into it as it progressed, then when the second twist happened and we realize that the play they are producing was about something that had already happened in world it was a gut punch. I honestly don't understand why people don't like it.
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u/safetydance 1d ago
I’ll try and explain my perspective as someone who didn’t really like it, but maybe did? Or, at least I found some of the artistic stuff amazing while other stuff was awful. Anyways…
The first 20-30 minutes were chaotic and annoying but I was sort of immediately invested in Digger’s character. I was intrigued by his home, the constant flow of characters in and out, and dealing with the calamity at hand. I also had a weird suspicion something was afoot as the opening shot of Digger “waking up” in bed and yawning felt fake. Like someone pretending to wake up with the silly yawn and stretch. I wasn’t rooting for or against Digger, but I was invested in the character right away (a testament to Cruise’s performance).
Then, when the twist occurred, it sort of sucked the life out of the film for me. I no longer cared about Digger or the actor playing Digger. I think the Director knew this and that’s why they tried to force in the missing kid story. Like, look here, he has a missing kid, you should care about him.
I thought the exile scene to the oil rig didn’t fit very well and was just weird.
Some of the art direction and, of course, Cruise’s performance were amazing.
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u/endogenix1 1d ago
Did it pull you back in when you realized that the play was a reenactment of events that had happened in world?
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u/safetydance 1d ago
It pulled me back in slightly at that moment but I was more interested in the disaster and how it unfolded than the characters and that all happened off screen.
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u/Yoshilaidanegg 17h ago
Isn't John Goodman in this? If he is then this is a good movie
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u/Low_life_high_lights 1d ago
This is America, people cant like something without someone else hating on them for liking it, with a million unoriginal clones adopting the identical opinion.
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u/mimosaorangepunch 21h ago
This is America? Shit I thought it was the whole world I'm in! Silly me.
Love from Scotland, a non existent place
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u/walt-mickey 1d ago
Why are you asking this question if you “can honestly see both sides”
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u/Mrlearnalot 1d ago
Because it’s art. And society doesn’t appreciate arts… the individual does, but the individual isn’t society. Society is its own organism and that organism influences the individual, and the individual is so used to following the flow of society that it is unable to see and appreciate the individuality of art
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u/Eastern-Cold7087 23h ago
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
I know you thought your comment was really insightful…but c’mon man…
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u/Mrlearnalot 23h ago edited 23h ago
lol, I smoked a joint and then saw this post. Sorry
Edit: And also, no I didn’t think this was really insightful, it’s just what I feel.
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u/kon--- 1d ago
You're seeing three camps.
One camp that enjoys the film. A second camp that the film does not work for not even a little and a third camp that shows to toss shit about the place any time Tom Cruise appears in a movie.
The first two camps, it's like any movie...they either work for the viewer to varying degrees or also to varying degrees cause the viewer to want to stop watching because what even is this?
The third camp, well...they operate with a head stuffed full of sniffing their own farts.
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u/Sudden_Eyes 17h ago edited 17h ago
The marketing has been terribly vague and confusing. Worst trailer in recent memory. It’s going to bomb because of it.
But some aholes on social media are blaming the hesitant audience for not just going blindly to support original content “that they claim they want.”
Meanwhile ticket prices are $25 avg.
It’s a stupid controversy.
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u/Ace20xd6 1d ago
It wants to be Death of Stalin while also arguing why that kind of satire can be cathartic. But Digger's story just isn't as funny or well written.
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u/nt2btrstd 1d ago
If it’s anything like death of Stalin I’ll def go see it, death of Stalin is one of my favourite comedies ever
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u/Aromatic-Dog-Breath 1d ago
I watched a trailer for it in theater. I still don’t really know what it’s about and don’t know why I should be interested. Definitely not paying to see it but when it’s streaming for free, I’ll give the first 30 mins a chance.
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u/TheCobalt- 1d ago
Just saw it today. It's pretty impossible to discuss the movie without spoiling it and there's really no way to do trailers that would explain it without spoiling anything.
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u/spennyspaghetti 1d ago
Exactly this, the marketing for the movie absolutely fucked up the release. I’ve never heard so much about a movie before and still not have any idea what the movie is about. Like I have no idea. If you’re going to market a movie without sharing a synopsis least give me some sort of selling point on why I should see it. Like “critics call it the most bizarre and hilarious movie you’ll see all year”. I think it’s a comedy, a black, or wacky, or dramady I don’t know. It’s got Tom Cruise in it with old man makeup, he holds a shovel, washes a cat. I just don’t get it and I can’t be bothered to care.
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u/Automatic_Event9691 21h ago
Story, Screenplay, Cinematography, BGM, Acting everything landed perfectly for me including the humour.
A complete entertainer for me.
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u/DirtyMike64 3h ago
I really enjoyed it and can't get it off my mind. But I really love a movie that pokes and prods at the audience and holds the mirror up. I like having to keep my brain on during a movie, and this definitely kept me thinking and I haven't stopped.
General audiences do not like to be challenged or pushed or made to think, so mix that with the complete lack of marketability of the movie, and you have a box office flop.
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u/cassiuswright 1d ago
The Big Lebowski was a box office flop and is now roundly considered one of the diffinitive cult classics of it's generation..
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u/ELOs_Time_1981 1d ago
Honestly, I just wanted a weird looking movie where Tom Cruise overacts as some crazy dude with a shovel. And it isn’t that at all. Which isn’t inherently bad, but when the actual film you get seems more interested in the idea that it’ll have some unique twist without actually making the twist feel like it has weight or meaning, making the story messier and distracting from the best part (Cruise being Digger), yeah I can see why it would be divisive. Hell the shovel is in like, 2 minutes near the opening? Half the shots in the trailer where he has the shovel are just missing entirely. As entertainment, the movie fails by actively removing itself from the most entertaining part, Digger himself. That’s how I felt personally
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u/PSB23102001 17h ago
I can understand that if the twist was a little too early and some ppl got put off with that, but I cannot understand the hate, it's almost manufactured as if they don't want to admit that the movie manages to not lose its grip. The EU court scene itself is worth the price of admission, a birdman like long take with a tom cruise so good that you realise why he has been in the industry for so long, it's like the bold risk taking cruise before the MI slop. I dug (yes ik) the movie, it's worth watching!
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u/Battle-Individual 1d ago
Just watched it.Its strange and weird but I wait until the end and it does all come together in the end.the movie is funny and there's some really great performances but boy does it get a point across.one of the better movies this year
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u/LengthinessWhich9099 1d ago
Cruise is more off-putting now that I've learned so much about Scientology and seeing him in stuff makes me less interested in watching it. I know many celebrities are members of Scientology but I treat it similarly to seeing a MAGA celeb in something.
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u/cmeyer49er 1d ago
I saw previews and thought it was overtly blatant that Cruise is shooting his shot for his elusive Oscar. Just seemed like a vanity award grab project.
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u/Few_Butterscotch_832 1d ago
It does take some very big swings and gets into the crust of it in a way which is a little too much into the film. But still, it was an amazingly immersive experience.
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u/Skrawnatawny 1d ago
Haven't seen it, but the promo stuff reminds me of Marty Supreme. (Bragging about the main actor's talent and suggesting the character is an asshole) I left MS thinking it was over hyped and it under delivered. I probably won't see this in theaters.
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u/loanharassment 1d ago
The fact that the movie is about climate change, and specifically how a few greedy capitalists knowingly made it happen for their own profit, seems to have pissed off some people enough to fund a massive online hate campaign against it. It’s a polarizing and flawed movie but the zealous and permeating hate this movie is getting is def not normal, seems astroturfed. Other than that it has an unusual structure and might scare off casual filmgoers.
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u/CurrencyOk1618 1d ago
Will Tom cruise playing a caricature of himself last for a two hour movie or be funny for about five minutes?
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u/Busy-Caregiver-7087 1d ago
The look of the film is lavish and unique
Tom Cruise, as he always does, gives it his all.
The rest of the cast is very uneven, most seem like they don't quite know what they are doing with their character or are struggling so they just go over-the-top with everything, though I think the script and director share the blame equally for that.
While there's some amusement in the big ideas that are on display, I found most of the movie pretty unfunny. Certain scenes, like the Situation Room reaction to the first big disaster, is cringe worthy. Like improv class cringe. Dr Strangelove this is certainly not.
I guess I can give Inarritu credit for making a satire about late stage capitalism while at the same time getting the studio to flush $200 million down the toilet - how ironic - but I just don't really go for these kinds of sophomoric socio-commentaries.
So, mostly well crafted but not at funny as it should be.
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u/astralnautical 1d ago
*this would be better if he did this that a director could’ve done that the producers didn’t that everybody else is a count”
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u/TheLyleCut 1d ago
People don’t like forming educated opinions themselves and instead look to what sentiment the first winds bring.
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u/Aggravating-Diet-663 1d ago
All this negative reception, while I still dont even have the slightly clue about what this movie is even about....It just makes me want to buy a ticket now😄
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u/fantonledzepp 1d ago
Iñárritu makes some films that make sense; this movie didn’t make sense in trailers.
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u/venturi4000 1d ago
Digger stuck with me long after it ended. The trailers kept the twists under wraps, and I think that's why some people are mad about it. It's a silly, satirical take on a pretty grim reality, and it works.
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u/DoctorNo1661 1d ago
It's purposely sold as a comedy because the whole point of the movie rests on the viewer believing he's watching a comedy (or satire or whatever you wanna call it). From a narrative standpoint at least.
So people who go see it expect a comedy. Or political satire or whatever.
It's actually something completely different but for some reason I most honestly cannot understand, instead of reassessing what the movie actually is, people would rather shit on what they deem to be a not really funny comedy.
There's something deeply ironic in all this. I'm not really fond of meta communication stunts like these tbh but I'm a bit sad the movie's reception is so bad when what it does (and how it does it : what a magnificent mise en scene holy shit) is so bold and dare I say quite apropos. Great mise en abime as well which is very hard to pull out usually.
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u/AnyResponsibility298 1d ago
The tom cruise character was funny but the movie itself was pretty boring.
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u/ekinria1928 1d ago
I don't care about "masterpiece" or "genius" or even "box office bomb"... They're just words that have been overused and have zero meaning to me anymore. IMO, I hope Digger is entertaining and interesting and fun. I'm going to draw my own conclusions...
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u/Bob_Obloooog 1d ago
I think it might be like Edge of Tomorrow. Under rated when it's released and well liked after a few years.
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u/Main_Clue_9531 1d ago
I don't know if other people think this, but for a film shot on vistavision, it looks like digital log footage
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u/No-Warthog7520 1d ago
I think the “Worst Movie Ever” and “Best Movie Ever” reviews are both part of the studio’s marketing campaign. Make people pay money to go and see for themselves if it really does suck. They are playing into the hands of the people who want to see Tom Cruise fail.
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u/Wackdiesel 1d ago
It is a movie. ...all are not going to like it. If you don't move on instead of making "content" to show your hatred for it.....breath people....
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u/Futants_ 1d ago
Because it's Tom Cruise in an odd and divisive role with a movie that looks like it fits better in early 90s to mid 00's?
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u/Exotic-Protection729 1d ago
I saw it and basically it’s a hard movie to market, it’s a shame because it’s a fun theatrical experience, it’s gonna bomb but I think people will appreciate it in retrospect. It’s a piece of art i encourage people to see it
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u/i_need_about_tree_50 23h ago
Just saw it, first 30 mins I wasn't feeling the movie, 30-60 mins ok maybe its making some sense and pace picks up, last hour mainly last 30 mins, it comes together nicely. Its almost like impressionism in movie form. Didnt love it but I enjoyed watching it comes together and I think it was rather good and loved that it felt different but not just for the sake of being different. The method made sense.
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u/Chonky_D_Floofy 22h ago
Surprisingly not a lot of people want pay to watch a movie when they have no idea what it’s about.
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u/breedknight 22h ago
He overcooks his performance on this one, a little bit more. It's exaggerated.
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u/jlwilcoxus 20h ago
I think I really, really... possibly love this movie... or... I hate it... but no... I certainly don't hate it... or do I... No, I LOVE it... but, do I?
I'm not sure how I feel about this movie, but every single actor in it deserves all the awards. Of that, I am sure.
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u/Batman2150 19h ago edited 19h ago
I got the vibes of Oscar bait from it. Like Tom was going all in to win his Oscar. And he got a mate to make a film for him where he could put a ton of makeup and fat suits on and overreact for his Oscar. That and the trailers in general just sucked for the film. A trailers job is to get you excited to watch a film. For digger after watching the trailer I had zero desire to see it. And the trailers from what I know now do a terrible job of even properly selling the vibe of the film correctly
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u/ultrasilverginger 19h ago
Because some people find Tom Cruise to be pompous and insufferable even without factoring in his cult. The story of his timing the makeup people to bring down the time of his transformation from six hours to one is a perfect example. And I’d be surprised if there’s no running scene in the film since Tom seems to need to run a marathon in every movie. Or maybe Digger just hangs out of a plane so Tim can do his own stunts.
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u/United-Palpitation28 18h ago
I can understand if you think the movie is preachy or pretentious or if the twist doesn’t work for you, or (like me) you felt the twist happened too soon in the story.
But what I don’t get are the people criticizing Tom Cruise’s performance. He was terrific- his Digger was ridiculously over the top, and his Curtis was much more subtle and subdued. I thought he did a fantastic job
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u/Puzzleheaded-Mix5848 18h ago
It's marketed one way, but the movie is totally different plot and character wise
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u/reader4567890 18h ago
Haven't seen it yet, but other than the name and the fact it's got Cruise and Plemons in it, I still have zero idea wtf it's about.
I'll watch when it comes to streaming - anything with Plemons in it is usually decent.
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u/ulrichmusil 18h ago
Because it just wasn’t very funny. The movie officially disappeared up Iñaritu’s ass with its precious pacing. A couple of fun moments and even performances do not save this movie from its director
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u/IWishIHavent 17h ago
Has a Iñárrity ever been non-divisive? I believe the most mainstream movie he ever did was The Revenant.
I still remember the same thing happened to Birdman, and right after I left theaters. I thought it was great, and people were commenting while we were leaving how it was a piece of crap. The point being: some people - especially in North America - are too used to spood-fed stories that don't require contemplation. I haven't seen the movie yet - planning on doing it today - but I would guess that is the case.
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u/LobsterResponsible17 17h ago
Seems corporate wallstreet types are the ones hating on the movie and Tom. Seen a couple articles where they were piling on Tom for the character he was playing. You morons realize he's playing a character right ?
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u/abdallha-smith 17h ago
I feel like it's being slandered by the higher ups for being anti establishment in wake of the merger
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u/Rude_Reality_9690 16h ago
Im actually very much feeling the inverse of all the frustrated posts ive read about the film. I thought this was a great, fun movie and I think more people would if there weren’t a million posts and comments (a lot from people who haven’t seen it?) saying either it sucks or don’t see it. Perhaps I have no stakes in the marketing because I use my theaters membership and see everything regardless.
The acting from everyone was solid and the grandiose manufactured drama worked really well for me. Everything was amplified by 1000 for the effects of the “surprise,” I thought the music and sets were quite special here because of how playful and off-kilter they were. Yes, even the cat who somehow looked real and fake at the same time.
Similarly to the substance, this isn’t a perfect movie or my favorite by any means, but it had all the components of what a great film is and was wildly entertaining- that’s really all that matters to me when I watch something
I’m not trying to campaign for digger, or to encourage people to like it, but go see it if you haven’t.
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u/eggflip1020 16h ago
I thought it was okay. I don’t know that blind siding the audience is necessarily the right move but hey lol
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u/puritanner 15h ago
Movies suffer from netflix syndrome but not in a way that you'd naively think.
Emotional investment into a story and a character is built up over hours and hours of story exposition.
Moving that intensity to movies limited to a few hours of runtime is inherently difficult.
We literally dull our senses by overstimulating and overconsuming days worth of cineastic content.
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u/DELETE_RAW 15h ago
Am I the only one who watched the trailer and could tell what the movie was about? Seemed pretty obvious and the outrage is manufactured.
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u/Comfortable_Studio37 1d ago
Let me ask this question: (spoilers)
Do you all think the reception of this movie would be much better if the whole play aspect was dropped and the story of Digger was presented straightforward like the trailers advertised?