Texas Chainsaw 3Duh: (copied from the TCM3D thread 'cause I'm lazy)
This post contains spoilers so if you're going to go out and see Texas Chainsaw 3D then k̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ avoid reading it.
So I genuinely went into this with an open mind, albeit with low expectations. The film starts off with a credits sequence recapping the events of the original film which, really put me in the mood for seeing it, even amidst the murky stereoscopy. Then the stupid teenagers turned up saying stupid teenage stuff as if Cabin in the Woods never happened and it went swiftly downhill. The intense atmosphere and mere suggestion of the horror of the original was replaced by grisly gore, dismemberment and a gratuitous leeriness with the whole thing clearly being an excuse to showcase tedious pointy-pointy chainsaw-in-yer-face effects. And it was just so utterly boring. If it was a remake you could just shrug it off as 'just another remake' (which to a large extent this is as it ticks all of the narrative and visual boxes of the original - picked up hitchhiker, roadkill on the road, Leatherface appearing in a hallway before taking his hammer down onto someone's head etc etc) but this is so much worse as it has the nerve to inject itself into the original films canon (with a very questionable approach to chronology and character age). The film takes a curious turn into Vigilante Group Vs Cannibal Family territory and by the end you're meant to be cheering on Leatherface to get his chainsaw and take revenge on those who killed his family (y'know, for being complicit in his crimes) turning him into a confused man-child (as per the original) with whom you have sympathy for (as not per the original). Out of the five teenagers in the film only 2 actually die at his hands which just furthers this really misguided approach.
On top of it all, it's just utterly, utterly, utterly tedious. An hour in I thought/hoped we were reaching the conclusion and a final showdown only to be dismayed that I'd only been sitting there for 60 minutes.
The 3D is, as ever, a pointless distraction, which adds nothing to the film at all although there is a brilliant bit where there's a close-up of a group photo which you get to see in 3D which is a baffling decision since it's such an inaccurate way of seeing a photo. All in all it really is just a dismal, boring, point-missing waste of time which will be forgotten about very soon and everyone involved should be thoroughly ashamed with it
|