From what I see on here, the reviews are either written by hardcore fans who gave the movie glittering reviews or (jealous)people who are determined to hate on the band by trashing it to no end (people who probably didn't even watch the movie). So let me waste a bit of my time to write an honest and unbiased review about this movie.
First of all, I'm not a fan of this band, but I'm interested in Simon Cowell, not the man himself, but his business ventures. As someone who is not a fan and who watches the movie with no expectations at all, the first one hour of the movie appeared to me like a very long and dragging commercial advertisement where the "product" here is the BAND itself. The producers and director had nothing else in their minds when they set out to make this movie. They wanted to tell us what we, the mass public, SHOULD think of the band.
The whole movie was actually made based off that. Like how you see a McDonald's ad on TV and it wants to tell you how delicious and fresh McDonald's foods are? And how you know what you're seeing on the ad isn't even half true? Yes, this movie is JUST like that.
Anything that happens in the first 60 minutes of the movie comes off as dishonest, all the interviews with the band's security, tour manager, the musicians, sound very scripted. Everyone talks the same way of someone or something, there's NO WAY it's not scripted or they weren't being told of what to say.
One of the major setbacks of the movie to me is how the boys are forcefully portrayed as very down to earth, fun, stupid, naive, and harmless. It was obviously done to show that they're very safe for their fan base of very young girls. But here's what I didn't like the most:
For a record, we all KNOW, they don't decide on all the things above, so who are they kidding?
The last 30 minutes of the movie is pretty close to how the movie should be. To me the good part of the movie is when they went back to their hometown to see their family. Any part that has a family member in it can be considered as a good part. It shows where they came from, the life they had before the band, what changes they made to their family. The very brief interviews with the family members are golden.
And there's this part where one of the boys said there was time when he's not enjoying everything and had to take a step back. This part is good because it shows how vulnerable the boys are, being very young and had to adapt to the drastic changes in their lives. But sadly this part only last for a few seconds, and no more exploration of this kind was made again.
It's such a shame really, that the people behind this movie decided to be on the safe side and put out something not much of a value rather than going all the way to tell an honest, interesting, and unique story about the band and the band members. But who am I kidding, the movie is obviously a project to make (Simon Cowell)their record label more money, not to create some art.
First of all, I'm not a fan of this band, but I'm interested in Simon Cowell, not the man himself, but his business ventures. As someone who is not a fan and who watches the movie with no expectations at all, the first one hour of the movie appeared to me like a very long and dragging commercial advertisement where the "product" here is the BAND itself. The producers and director had nothing else in their minds when they set out to make this movie. They wanted to tell us what we, the mass public, SHOULD think of the band.
The whole movie was actually made based off that. Like how you see a McDonald's ad on TV and it wants to tell you how delicious and fresh McDonald's foods are? And how you know what you're seeing on the ad isn't even half true? Yes, this movie is JUST like that.
Anything that happens in the first 60 minutes of the movie comes off as dishonest, all the interviews with the band's security, tour manager, the musicians, sound very scripted. Everyone talks the same way of someone or something, there's NO WAY it's not scripted or they weren't being told of what to say.
One of the major setbacks of the movie to me is how the boys are forcefully portrayed as very down to earth, fun, stupid, naive, and harmless. It was obviously done to show that they're very safe for their fan base of very young girls. But here's what I didn't like the most:
- They made it as if the boys DECIDE for themselves not to be a dancing boyband.
- They made it as if the boys DECIDE for themselves how their music sounds like.
- They made it as if the boys DECIDE for themselves on what to wear.
For a record, we all KNOW, they don't decide on all the things above, so who are they kidding?
The last 30 minutes of the movie is pretty close to how the movie should be. To me the good part of the movie is when they went back to their hometown to see their family. Any part that has a family member in it can be considered as a good part. It shows where they came from, the life they had before the band, what changes they made to their family. The very brief interviews with the family members are golden.
And there's this part where one of the boys said there was time when he's not enjoying everything and had to take a step back. This part is good because it shows how vulnerable the boys are, being very young and had to adapt to the drastic changes in their lives. But sadly this part only last for a few seconds, and no more exploration of this kind was made again.
It's such a shame really, that the people behind this movie decided to be on the safe side and put out something not much of a value rather than going all the way to tell an honest, interesting, and unique story about the band and the band members. But who am I kidding, the movie is obviously a project to make (Simon Cowell)their record label more money, not to create some art.