3/10
Has it moments, but mostly is just bizarre
27 September 2016
Warning: Spoilers
After opening up my laptop to watch the movie the Adventures of Power, the first image I saw was of the creator Ari Gold, who frankly came across as pretty lame. He was nervous,jittery, and had a weird sense of humor that didn't quite click with me. But, I thought, maybe the movie will be different. Best not to judge on first impressions, right? So I buckled down, started microwaving some Costco low fat popcorn, and settled down in my bed for what would be the longest hour and a half of my life.

The entire movie requires a healthy dose of suspension of belief. In fact, the whole premise of the movie is ridiculous—sneaking off to go to illegal air drumming competitions in Mexico, getting picked up by an old Chinese couple in Newark and joining an air drumming team captained by a guy with no hands? Put all logic aside, folks, otherwise you're not going to make it to the end of this movie. Once we got to the part about Power's love interest, I had hope that maybe, just maybe, the movie was about to explore the tense relationship between the older generation and the youth, between a mother's guilt and her daughter's passion for rock and roll. But no, somewhere along the line the mother accepts the daughter's love for rock and roll for no apparent reason. Also, I can never again look at cereal in the same way. I've poured myself a bowl of cereal every day for the past two years, and today I decided to cook eggs instead, because the image of two awkward adults making out under pouring cereal boxes was too strong for me to bleach from my mind. I could find no real purpose for this motif other than disconnecting the audience from the characters as much as possible. Where did the cereal even come from? Does cereal just rain from the sky now?

Despite the overall bizarre tone of the movie, there were some touching moments like when Power admits that "(he) can't go 20 more seconds than (his rival)" and the captain replies "maybe not, but you can at least earn us some respect out there." This was a surprisingly poignant and realistic quote underneath the general unrealistic tone set by the creator. The motif of labor unions vs big companies, the underdog vs the big shots, was also a main struggle of the movie, which was tense at times and certainly made the movie more realistic.

All in all, probably one of the worst movies I've ever had the displeasure of watching, except for the adoption of the book Eragon, which was a train wreck. Despite my refusal to never watch the movie again, I don't think it's a horrible movie. It has its funny moments, though they are undercut by the general disconnect of the creator's humor with my own. If you're looking for a way to kill 1.5 hours of your life and have a really interesting conversation starter with someone, this just might be it.

Side note: Review used for my MGMT395 class.
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