MovieChat Forums > The Broken (2008) Discussion > 10 reasons why this movie is awful

10 reasons why this movie is awful

posted 16 years ago by SenClayDavis
26 replies | jump to latest

1. Massively overused orchestral crescendo. The music builds up as if something exciting is about to happen, then nothing happens. Again and again and again.

2. Shots linger too long on uninteresting crap. Hey, let's look a this coffee cup for the next 5 minutes while the audience falls asleep.

3. Cliche "protagonist is actually a ghost/doppleganger" twist at the end. It was original and surprising in "The Sixth Sense." It was predictible and boring in "The Broken."

4. Lack of any reasonable explanation or background information on the dopplegangers. Simple questions like what they are, where they come from, or why they are killing people are never answered. Pretentious armchair film buffs on this forum will try to say that no explanation is needed because the film is artistic and open to interpretation, but this is *beep* Being artistic is fine but sacrificing context to this degree is inexcusable.

5. Inconsistent killings. The brother's girlfriend's doppleganger was able to magically shove its hand into her mouth and make her bleed to death (???). Lena Heady's doppleganger had to attempt to suffocate her victim with a bag and finally resorted to bludgeoning her with a statuette.

6. Portrayal of doctors/therapists as idiots. Their conversations always focused on Heady's inability to remember the car crash she was involved in. She suffered a *beep* concussion, of course she doesn't remember anything.

7. Heady's character's memory loss appears only when it's convenient for the plot. She remembers her boyfriend and family, her radiology skills, her car, her brother's phone number, but not where she lives or the fact that SHE IS A *beep* DOPPLEGANGER.

8. Plot integrity is sacrificed during feeble attempts to keep the painfully obvious "twist" hidden. When Heady drops her pill bottle and bends over, her reflection makes an angry stabbing motion at her. If Heady is actually the doppleganger and not the real her, why does she have another evil reflection in the mirror?? Also, why is her doppleganger boyfriend chasing after her? Why doesn't he just kindly remind her that she is one of them?

9. Overuse of the same crappy flashback. Ok we get it, you guys spent money on a slow motion shot of a car crash with a dummy painted to look like Lena Heady. We don't need to see it every 5 minutes.

10. The enemies weren't scary enough. They didn't even go to the trouble of putting some scary makeup on the actors for their evil dopplegangers.

Seriously, even the horrendous "Mirrors" with Kiefer Sutherland was better than this garbage.

[–] uglygelly 16 years ago

#8 - That sequence was just a dream, idiot.

[–] caleb_1 16 years ago

I like about all these, but #9 is great, I was thinking that every time they showed it after the first time.

[–] peterhawkinson 16 years ago

1 + 2 are opinions I don't share but you're welcome to hold.

3. This is only a twist ending if you did not understand that the POV shifted from Gina to her double by the time of the phone booth scene.

4. Did you want a) a scene where the Doppelgangers Union has a meeting in a conference room somewhere? b) Gina's father visits a shaman with a bone through his nose who retells the Legend of the Doppelgangers?, or perhaps c) the brother's girlfriend finds an ancient leatherbound tome at Borders that explains it all?

5. All individuals have the same abilities and make the same choices at all times, which is why anyone can slam dunk a basketball and everybody in the world is wearing a pink shirt today.

6. The possible explanation for Gina's memory loss and the possibility that it would be temporary were both addressed during the hospital scenes and were accounted for in her therapy. People have a mind and an awareness, sometimes the mind does things to the awareness that need to be undone later. The therapist was engaging the awareness to try to bring it back in sync with the mind. I don't see why that's idiotic.

7. This is also consistent with the idea that her mind has masked traumatic events and information from her awareness.

8. Again I would argue that, since there is no twist, these have nothing to do with said twist. That the mirror reflection thing happened in a dream has already been pointed out by another poster. My take on Stephan's hostility is that he didn't recognize that false-Gina was a doppelganger because she wasn't acting like one.

9. passes on the same grounds as 1 + 2. I didn't hate it, but you're welcome to.

10. I think makeup would have weakened the notion of a doppelganger and strained the plausibility of the copies fitting into the lives they stole.

[–] Tim851 15 years ago

> 3. This is only a twist ending if you did not understand that the POV shifted from Gina to her double by the time of the phone booth scene.

It IS a twist ending. The director intended it to be a one, by the whole way it's set up. That it wasn't surprising to you, which no-one who saw "The Sixth Day" could blame you for, doesn't change that.

> 4. Did you want a) a scene where the Doppelgangers Union has a meeting in a conference room somewhere

Yeah, 'cause all movies use Union meetings to explain the motivations of their antagonists. It would've been nice, for starters, to know why they started out now. They had 30+ years to commence the killing. Also, why is the mirror world dark? In the mirrors I've come across everything looks just like what's in front of it, just ... mirrored.

> My take on Stephan's hostility is that he didn't recognize that false-Gina was a doppelganger because she wasn't acting like one.

Why would Stephan's doppelganger be hostile in the first place? Since the movie doesn't give me a reason for him coming into our realm, I have to make up my own and I follow Sherlock Holmes' advice and assume that the simplest explanation might be the best: he liked our world better than the mirror world. So why then be hostile towards Gina, just because he thinks she's the Original. If he wanted to be with doppelganger-Gina, he could've just stayed in the f-ing mirror world. Or was it just the lack of light? C'mon, there must've been a mirror-Thomas Edison...

[–] ohlang1 15 years ago

>It IS a twist ending. The director intended it to be a one, by the whole way it's set up. That it wasn't surprising to you, which no-one who saw "The Sixth Day" could blame you for, doesn't change that.

Dude, I think you liked it but someone who you look up to disliked it so you've been playing this charade since. I don't understand the point of your comment. I didn't predict the ending. The movie was great.

>Yeah, 'cause all movies use Union meetings to explain the motivations of their antagonists. It would've been nice, for starters, to know why they started out now. They had 30+ years to commence the killing. Also, why is the mirror world dark? In the mirrors I've come across everything looks just like what's in front of it, just ... mirrored.

You kind of miss the point, how would you have liked the explanation to happen in the movie? Union meeting?

> Why would Stephan's doppelganger be hostile in the first place? Since the movie doesn't give me a reason for him coming into our realm, I have to make up my own and I follow Sherlock Holmes' advice and assume that the simplest explanation might be the best: he liked our world better than the mirror world. So why then be hostile towards Gina, just because he thinks she's the Original. If he wanted to be with doppelganger-Gina, he could've just stayed in the f-ing mirror world. Or was it just the lack of light? C'mon, there must've been a mirror-Thomas Edison...

Because the doppelgangers are hostile toward non doppelgangers period. No explanation is needed for why they wanted to come over. All the originals were killed by their doppelgangers (no cross killing) leave it at that. The crossing over seemed to be happening around the time setting of the movie, so Thomas Edison was fortunate (brother's neighbors, the janitor -implied, the bad lady suggesting it).

[–] cookiela2001 9 years ago

It IS a twist ending. The director intended it to be a one, by the whole way it's set up. That it wasn't surprising to you, which no-one who saw "The Sixth Day" could blame you for, doesn't change that.

This ending reminds me more of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers (remake version, 1978) than The Sixth Sense .

.

[–] sabrinatsang 15 years ago

I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE MENTIONED. i honestly thought this was going to be a movie with lots of people thinking things that i'll never know and in the end everyone gets everything except the audience.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] britten_mark 15 years ago

Brilliant resume. I had agreed with everything you said within 1/2 hour and switched off.

Winston Wolf: "Well, let's not start suckin' each others dicks just yet......"

[–] hardcorecactus2003 13 years ago

"C'mon, there must've been a mirror-Thomas Edison..."

That seriously made me laugh out loud. I commend you, sir.

[–] sebastiansmurf 15 years ago

1. Massively overused orchestral crescendo. The music builds up as if something exciting is about to happen, then nothing happens. Again and again and again.

2. Shots linger too long on uninteresting crap. Hey, let's look a this coffee cup for the next 5 minutes while the audience falls asleep.

4. Lack of any reasonable explanation or background information on the dopplegangers. Simple questions like what they are, where they come from, or why they are killing people are never answered. Pretentious armchair film buffs on this forum will try to say that no explanation is needed because the film is artistic and open to interpretation, but this is *beep* Being artistic is fine but sacrificing context to this degree is inexcusable.

agree w/most ALL of these wholeheartedly; but you TOTALLY nailed it for 1 & 2! esp. the music!! ugh - it irritated the shyt outta me!! & #4 bugged me, too.

www.thehungersite.com
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[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] clawclips 15 years ago

I believe this is *the* greatest post on this board. Thank you for the honest, accurate review.
Sick and tired of the "omg dis iz supposed to be deep and profound!11! lyk, horror iznt just blood n gore u noe???' bullshlt.

[–] TigersWood 15 years ago

I can agree with some of the points you make here. I wasn't expecting much out of this movie and I did find it a bit slow, but I still enjoyed the film. Partly because I liked Lena Heady from 300 and seeing her get naked again was a treat. Partly because the movie is very well directed, it looked great in HD and had an uncommon distinct feel to it.

1. I liked the music, reminded me of The Descent.
2. Agreed pacing was a bit too slow.
3. I didn't predict the twist ending but then again I didn't try to. In retrospect it was quite predictable.
4. I don't think we need any background here, better without.
5. Agreed, now that you mention it this is a good point.
6. Doctors seemed to care a lot about her, maybe because they saw how hot she looks with her clothes off.
7. Agreed, the movie doesn't work at all without these liberties.
8. I don't agree here, I think that was a dream. Also boyfriend didn't really have a chance to chase her, but I think he knew she could blow they're little scheme since she didn't remember who she really was.
9. I liked that crash scene, it was cool.
10. Doppelgangers don't really work if they look different right?

Mwuhahahahhaaa!