MovieChat Forums > Se7en (1995) Discussion > Didn't age well...

Didn't age well...


This is another great example of how movies were overdone in the 1990s, just like The Matrix. Massive hits when they came out, but try watching them again in this decade and you will see how silly and pretentious they look.

One example. They tried to make NYC look gloomy and bleak. How did they go about it? Well, it rains all the time and everyone's offices and quarters look like they haven't been tidied up in 10 years. Oh and the lights are really dim everywhere. That's it. Even Mills and his wife, who have JUST MOVED IN are living in a shady messed up dumpster. Compare that with a true ageless masterpiece, Blade Runner. That's a totally believable dystopic Los Angeles.

Another example, the Somerset character. So they tried to make him deep and enigmatic, more or less like Morpheus in The Matrix. Instead they both come off as pseudo-pedantic annoying smart-asses. Take this scene: cab driver:"where are we going?". Somerset: "very far from here". Turns out they were just going to the city library. In real life you would probably get punched in the face. Another scene: Mills wife:"so, how long have you lived here?". Somerset: "faaar too long". Oh, what a mysterious and profound thinker. Yes, and he knows Chaucer and Dante.

Brad Pitt was a terrible actor back then, his character his unbearable and his acting makes it even more so. Did we really need a borderline white trash main character to partner up with the oh-so-wise Somerset? We are supposed to care about him, and suffer with him. Instead the only really satisfying bit of the movie is thatGwyneth Paltrow's head gets chopped off. It should happen more often in movies by the way, as she is the most overrated actress ever.

Anyway, this movie has scholarly value as a study case for everything that was horribly wrong with movies back in the 1990s. Do you want some serious timeless neo-noir gems? Get Blade Runner, Chinatown, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Memento or The Professional. Se7en (did they really decide to spell it that way?!) will look like high-school project film-making compared to those behemoths of cinema.

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Idiotic post. This movie is still brilliant in every way.

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Couldn't disagree more. I watched this and Heat recently and thought to myself "they don't make movies like those anymore."

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I agree with you about Pitt's character. Mills was unbearable.

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I agree with you regarding Pitt's acting and character and the whole raining gimmick, can't agree with you on much else. I thought the last 30 minutes was so good it made the movie go from lukewarm to great.

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I've just watched it again for the second time.

I think it is not that bad though I agree with the points you raise.

I was thinking almost all the time "why is it all so dark?" Supposedly that added something to the atmosphere. It was just annoying.

I also agree with your assessment of Somerset. He said the most trivial things as if they were these deep thoughts.

The memory I had from Brad Pitt acting was that it was good and it is very mediocre instead.

I have other things against the movie. What was the point of Tracy except as a victim? We see her three times through the whole movie, there is only one conversation about the baby. Are we suppose to feel that much for her/the baby? Why would she contact a guy she only saw once to tell him about her problems? That was very lame. Why was considered a better choice that BP's character didn't know about the pregnancy? just for the last moments have more dramatic value?



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Brad Pitt was a terrible actor back then, his character his unbearable and his acting makes it even more so. Did we really need a borderline white trash main character to partner up with the oh-so-wise Somerset?


That was the point. He needed to be a sinner to deserve the punishment at the end.

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Blow it out your a$$ bardmore! My god I've never heard such a pretentious prick in all my years of fiddling around on this sticky keyboard. Blade Runner is about as exciting as watching my grandfather spread peanut butter on a piece of toast,

Now to more of your post, You say 'Compare that with a true ageless masterpiece, Blade Runner. That's a totally believable dystopic Los Angeles.' Although the setting you love about Blade Runner is the same as the setting you hate about Seven, Nice job there.

Brad Pitt was actually good in this move, Spacey and Freeman overshadowed him but the only bad acting about Pitt's performance is how he delivers the line 'What's in the box!'

The 90's offered classic masterpieces, such as Goodfellas, Misery, Barton Fink, Schindler's list, Shawshank Redemption, Gettysburg, Fargo (as you mentioned which is from the 90's) and L.A Confidential. It may not be the most stacked decade, But it had some really great films.

The dialogue in this film can be bad at times, But you're really not going into enough details about the writing, and i can see you're one of those smart-ass Nolan fans too! Just adds to your bad knowledge about films.

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Let me sum up MacacoBanditi's points
😀
Why Se7en didn't age well:
1) Gloomy, bleak, rainy, dim portrayal of NYC
2) Character of Somerset - pretentious, annoying
3) Character of Mills - unbearable
4) Brad Pitt is a terrible actor, Gwyneth Paltrow is overrated

--> study case for everything wrong with 1990s movies

Oh and
5) Stupid film title (Se7en)

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