Elephant eurgh (Supposed to be a sound of disgust :P)

I warn there may be spoilers herein, but I warned you

Ok, contrary to what I sometimes say, I do enjoy to watch new films as well as old. Especially when films come highly recommended. But when I read some good things about Elephant, a movie based on the idea of a sort of columbine shooting in a school; it sounded good, and especially after wining best director and film from Cannes. And I'm always a fan of independent movies as sometimes they end up to be great.... SOMETIMES.

Unlike many people, I didn't think the movie was too slow, hell it was only 80 minutes long. I didn't get bored of the long drawn out focuses on people simply walking around the school. I must say I did like how they all sort of showed what everyone was doing at the same time. But other than that, I did not like too much more. So ok, the acting was terrible, it was as bad as my acting. But I enjoy Plan 9, despite the bad acting. Bad acting is something I can deal with; if it's not horribly terrible that is.

So yeah the brunt of the film was simply following a few different students around a school. Showing one of the things I did not like about the film, the characters had no depth whatsoever, I did not think oh, they're a really nice person... I didn't even think about them. Sure I felt pity when the kid went to the toilets to get the spitwaddy things off of him. But that was most compassion that I took out of the film.

From there on in the film went down hill for me.. so a couple of kids who believe they are oppressed or something in school, decide to buy some guns while they enjoy watching a programme about Nazis and Hitler... oh my how original, and then we see them play a rather dull looking video game where they just walk around and shoot people... oh and wait, why don't they be gay as well!

Ok so we see them go into the school, and this is where my idea of bad character development comes into play... they simply go around and kill some kids... showing absolutely no remorse or anxiety towards what they are doing, even when it goes wrong... which I think is rather unbelievable... because I mean if I was planning to gun down my school, I would want all of my plan to be precise and work correctly.

Anyway back to the character development... they go around shooting these students, whom we know nothing about... sure that could be reflecting the same state of mind that these two killers are in... but really, if you want the audience's sympathy then you show some student who does nothing but good in the world, and then you show one of them killing said kid with no thought put into it, showing how they don't think to reflect on anyone they kill... so maybe this is explored a little with Michelle... I believe that was her name, because she was a shy person, relatively the same as one of them which carried out the killings. I mean she wouldn't have done anything.

And I must admit I liked the anti-climax of Benny, I don't believe he was reflecting a side of teenagers though, hell if I made the film, that is one bit which I believe is excellent, because anti-climaxs are always great to use.

CptAlbertWesker rating - 3/10

So um, I'm gonna shut up now, because I've lost my place in what I was saying, although I could rant on all day how bad I thought the film was but I would waffle on again and again... so um, please someone give their opinion on why they like it or something, because I would like to know your views.
Also please bear in mind I will be posting quite a few soon, my Elephant review is an old one, but I believe strongly in it :p