This movie is one of the most manipulative movies I've ever sat through. All it needed was a flashing red sign below the screen telling me when to cry. It's fine to evoke emotions, but they were trying way too hard. Granted, the movie opened it a scene of a child dying, so it was clearly indicated from the beginning that this movie was going to be a barrel of laughs. I suppose I knew what I was getting into from the fist scene.
Sure, not every movie has to be upbeat, but this movie was so unnecessarily depressing that when the lights came up in the theater, half the audience had committed suicide. Okay, I'm lying. I saw it on Netflix. I was going to see it in the theater, but they outlawed it in my area because of all the suicides. Every other scene had something horribly tragic happen. Being needlessly depressing is not the same as being deep. This movie had nothing interesting to say at all. It was hard to feel very strongly about the end, because by the time that happened, I had become desensitized. In 2 hours. Because it was City of Angels. Of course something depressing is going to happen; it happens every time you turn around.
Moreover, the characters were difficult to like. Seth (Nicolas Cage) came across as incredibly creepy. The man used his powers of invisibility to hover over people to read their minds so he could try to understand human emotion. That's not sympathetic. That's downright invasive. I mean, he sat in the bathroom watching Maggie character bath and I'm supposed to like him because he's depressive, even though it clearly explained in the movie that angels don't feel negative emotions? And, not to be mean, but the movie goes through great lengths to present Nicolas Cage as a sex symbol, which seems off. He is an average looking guy with no personality whatsoever. What is it about him that is so damn appealing?
Maggie (Meg Ryan) is a big question mark. For one thing, I like to think that my doctor would feel distress if I died during a procedure, so that seemed realistic. However, it later becomes clear that this was the ONLY patient that has ever died on her operating table... So, to recap, she's an ICU surgeon who had never had a patient die before that. THAT'S realistic. She also comes across as very cold in some scenes. It was half way through the movie that I realized that the doctor she is sleeping with is her boyfriend, and not just a sex buddy. So, essentially, she is cheating on him with Nicolas Cage's character, and doesn't seem to see anything wrong with it. Even when he proposes to her, she seems more disturbed by the fact that he proposed than any of her own wrongdoing.
On the positive side, it's a very aesthetically pleasing film. They especially had some wonderful shots of the mountains in the Lake Tahoe scenes. Also, if you are a particularly sentimental person, than the over-the-top tragic nature of this movie might not annoy you as much as it did me.
As for me, I just found this movie to be to be over-the-top tragic to the point where it seemed unnatural and manipulative. I feel that a plot should unfold and if tragedy comes, it should come naturally; this film seemed to use story as a segue into the cry scenes, and it shows. The dialog is bad, the story is full of holes, and the characters are unlikable. Ultimately, it is for that reason that I give it 2 stars.
Sure, not every movie has to be upbeat, but this movie was so unnecessarily depressing that when the lights came up in the theater, half the audience had committed suicide. Okay, I'm lying. I saw it on Netflix. I was going to see it in the theater, but they outlawed it in my area because of all the suicides. Every other scene had something horribly tragic happen. Being needlessly depressing is not the same as being deep. This movie had nothing interesting to say at all. It was hard to feel very strongly about the end, because by the time that happened, I had become desensitized. In 2 hours. Because it was City of Angels. Of course something depressing is going to happen; it happens every time you turn around.
Moreover, the characters were difficult to like. Seth (Nicolas Cage) came across as incredibly creepy. The man used his powers of invisibility to hover over people to read their minds so he could try to understand human emotion. That's not sympathetic. That's downright invasive. I mean, he sat in the bathroom watching Maggie character bath and I'm supposed to like him because he's depressive, even though it clearly explained in the movie that angels don't feel negative emotions? And, not to be mean, but the movie goes through great lengths to present Nicolas Cage as a sex symbol, which seems off. He is an average looking guy with no personality whatsoever. What is it about him that is so damn appealing?
Maggie (Meg Ryan) is a big question mark. For one thing, I like to think that my doctor would feel distress if I died during a procedure, so that seemed realistic. However, it later becomes clear that this was the ONLY patient that has ever died on her operating table... So, to recap, she's an ICU surgeon who had never had a patient die before that. THAT'S realistic. She also comes across as very cold in some scenes. It was half way through the movie that I realized that the doctor she is sleeping with is her boyfriend, and not just a sex buddy. So, essentially, she is cheating on him with Nicolas Cage's character, and doesn't seem to see anything wrong with it. Even when he proposes to her, she seems more disturbed by the fact that he proposed than any of her own wrongdoing.
On the positive side, it's a very aesthetically pleasing film. They especially had some wonderful shots of the mountains in the Lake Tahoe scenes. Also, if you are a particularly sentimental person, than the over-the-top tragic nature of this movie might not annoy you as much as it did me.
As for me, I just found this movie to be to be over-the-top tragic to the point where it seemed unnatural and manipulative. I feel that a plot should unfold and if tragedy comes, it should come naturally; this film seemed to use story as a segue into the cry scenes, and it shows. The dialog is bad, the story is full of holes, and the characters are unlikable. Ultimately, it is for that reason that I give it 2 stars.