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Let me begin with saying I enjoy Richard Linklater. Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and School of Rock are some of my favorite movies. That being said, Waking Life is a work of purely philosophical blather.
The Main Character, who remains nameless, journeys into his sub-conscious mind. He is searching the true nature of dreams, and by extension life. On his journey he meets numerous individuals who soliloquise on the nature of society/life/dreams/altered reality/evolution.
The animation is heralded as ground-breaking and revoltiounary, yet it did nothing for me except giving me a bit of motion sickness. The "dream" atmosphere could have been acheived without the hallucinagenic transitions between animation styles. I could have done without the visualization of the speakers words. It took far too much attention away from "what" the people were saying. (For example, Eamonn Healy spoke about telescoping as his head telescoped. Instead of listening to his interesting view on evolution, I watched his head change in size.) This may have been the intention, but the scenes were still awkward to view.
Despite what some people have told me, the discussions in this movie are not great philosophical points. The movie seemed like a Philosophy for Beginners class. It covered the usual questions of "Do we have free will" and "What if life is jsut somebody's dream" and other such fanciful garbage. Rather than addressing one or two questions, this movie tries to cram many views and statments into two hours. It never gets to the core of these questions, nor does it offer any view of opposition or debate. The soloquiys range from slightly interesting to terribly boring, never venturing into the mind-blowing, or even mind expanding, realm it had the potential to be in.
The pace was terrible. The voices were ho hum. The animation took away from the information, which itself was boring and dated. A note to Linklater, you are very good at toying with human itneraction and delivering fresh perspectives on alienated members of society. Do that, and leave the philosophy to DeCartes.
Overall: 3/10
Let me begin with saying I enjoy Richard Linklater. Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and School of Rock are some of my favorite movies. That being said, Waking Life is a work of purely philosophical blather.
The Main Character, who remains nameless, journeys into his sub-conscious mind. He is searching the true nature of dreams, and by extension life. On his journey he meets numerous individuals who soliloquise on the nature of society/life/dreams/altered reality/evolution.
The animation is heralded as ground-breaking and revoltiounary, yet it did nothing for me except giving me a bit of motion sickness. The "dream" atmosphere could have been acheived without the hallucinagenic transitions between animation styles. I could have done without the visualization of the speakers words. It took far too much attention away from "what" the people were saying. (For example, Eamonn Healy spoke about telescoping as his head telescoped. Instead of listening to his interesting view on evolution, I watched his head change in size.) This may have been the intention, but the scenes were still awkward to view.
Despite what some people have told me, the discussions in this movie are not great philosophical points. The movie seemed like a Philosophy for Beginners class. It covered the usual questions of "Do we have free will" and "What if life is jsut somebody's dream" and other such fanciful garbage. Rather than addressing one or two questions, this movie tries to cram many views and statments into two hours. It never gets to the core of these questions, nor does it offer any view of opposition or debate. The soloquiys range from slightly interesting to terribly boring, never venturing into the mind-blowing, or even mind expanding, realm it had the potential to be in.
The pace was terrible. The voices were ho hum. The animation took away from the information, which itself was boring and dated. A note to Linklater, you are very good at toying with human itneraction and delivering fresh perspectives on alienated members of society. Do that, and leave the philosophy to DeCartes.
Overall: 3/10