Listening (2015)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Terrifyingly bad that is. The premise of the movie has potential, but the "science" portrayed is a little silly and illogical, even so within the logic of the movie. But hey, I was trained by a Buddhist monk to muster massive amounts of suspense of disbelief, even if the movie doesn't make sense according to it's own rules.But no amount of meditation is going to cover up the huge problems with the script and editing. It's all over the place. Scenes are disjointed, and dialogue is as well. Sometimes dialogue is completely nonsensical, as are are some cuts and scenes. (The dialogue is so weird at times that two sentences uttered one after another did not have any coherence whatsoever)Some scenes don't need to be there, and some scenes that aren't there should be there to make things flow better, or show a better development of motives and story. In other words; the movie takes too long showing us things that don't matter, and happily jumps over major plot developments, which are explained in a singe, short sentence or can be easily deduced, but it would have been much better to actually see those scenes instead of the ones that do nothing.At other times scenes just seem to make sudden, weird turns. Characters switch motivation or emotions for seemingly little or no reason at all.There are also massive plot holes. There is a glaring one that makes the entire movie pointless, but there are many. It starts out OK-ish, but gets worse as the movie progresses.I had a couple of laugh out loud moments because the movie is unintentionally hilarious at times, especially in the second half of the movie.The camera work is decent at times. They throw in some annoying lens flare effect in some scenes, as well as use different color filters for every scene. I tried to figure out if the lens flare and use of colors had any significance, but much like the editing and dialogue I couldn't make sense of it.The sound is OK, music is generic, and so are the effects.I had to force myself to finish this one. Two things kept me going; more potential unintentional hilarity, and the far fetched hope that the movie might ultimately make an interesting moral or philosophical point. Despite what some reviewers claim, it doesn't, it's just a jumbled mess.

I wanted to watch this movie tonight because all the technology within this movie is in our real world and not just Hollywood. The movie is worth a 10 to me because I'm a software developer and a fan of neural lace biotechnology. I also could relate to the married man's relationship with his wife and daughter. The movie had an outstanding story and I thought the acting was also very good. From the start of the movie to the very end, my suspicion and curiosity gradually increased on what was about to happen in the next scene.Any tech fans will love this movie. Non technical individuals will probably view it as a poor movie. Married women who are contempt with a normal, white picked fence, linear life that includes a stable marriage, you probably will not like this movie.

The movie is written and directed by the same guy. That usually means that if it's going to be bad, it's going to be really bad. Good news: it's not bad. But it's not that great either.The story follows two students researching brain communication. Of course the bad guys are interested in this and they are already in trouble as they have been using stolen lab equipment from their university. More than that, there are marital problems as well. This could have been a good idea if not for the paint-by-numbers story, which is obviously written by somebody who went to writing class, but didn't have the time to develop their own style.The good part about the film is that the actors play well, the direction is reasonable - although I don't know why every damn frame has to have lens flares (another reason to hate J.J., probably) and the story is captivating. The only major problem is the lackluster script. Everything gets revealed way too soon and in the moments where tension was needed, story gets resolved by impossible means.Bottom line: nothing in this film is great, but it had something, a potential that somehow failed to get realized. Good start, interesting second act, confusing third and a really really bad ending.

This director's debut film exceeded my expectations. LISTENING is a suspense-filled sci-fi film that's fast-paced, entertaining and did live up to its award-winning status! It never had down-time and kept entertaining right up till the end. The story-line had multiple levels with lots of twists, turns and intrigue. The moral implications of the movie's subject matter technology (mind reading) makes for a very interesting premise too. The acting was great and several hit it out of the ball park. You'll find yourself routing for the actors as their struggle unfolds, and the actress who turns out to be the home-wrecker is an attractive addition to the cast. One of the main actors (David) did a good job, but had a couple of scenes that I wished were redone to make him more believable, but I'm splitting hairs, he did a great job over-all. The cinematography was very good, interesting and intriguing. The use of lens flares at times made you feel like you were seeing the film through ones own eyes, live! Very well done! I expect more great things from this young director, and look forward to his future efforts. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes a good suspense-filled flick, and very thought-provoking in its delivery. See the movie, you'll be happy you did!