Unwatchable

How can you justify giving your opinion or review of a film after seeing only 20 minutes? How would you know if there was a story or plot, you weren't present for 90% of the movie.

I do agree that you can't watch just 20 minutes of a movie and make a clear assessment of it. I will agree, however, that this movie was unwatchable. It really never got any better, just got more convoluted, threw in more subplots (each more outlandish than the last), and was really not that funny in the first place with how many jokes were being thrown out there.

If ever there was a mainstream movie that can't be judged on the first half hour its this one; I'm not saying that to be contrary, just an fyi as fact: I never seen a film that U-turned like this did.

Now disclaimer - that's not to say everyone who hates it just didn't watch it long enough; it sticks to the pace throughout, so surfs the wave of being both self referential while sincerely using a speedy kinetic style, and actually being just that.

But ignoring personal taste, just objectively: the kind of genre misdirection going on in Detention is usually accompanied by a sense of smug droll foreshadowing from the beginning, or its an out and out hipster indie movie taking itself too seriously to genuinely parody the speed junkie teen movie style. This one doesn't wink at all in the first third, which either takes massive balls, or is just shooting itself in the foot. Either way, I was thinking watching the first half hour, the whiz bang self consciously self referential blah that the whole thing would do that and only that [oh look how cliched high school movies are thing] with nothing but recycled horror/psycho stuff. Then the second half hour they stopped referencing it being a movie and I realised I was quite enjoying it in a lowest common denominator way. Then the last half hour [for me] is actually good, which in itself is a shocker. How often in any teen horror film is the third act even good? Let alone a teen horror movie set in high school, let alone a high school horror movie trying to satirise the angst of high school and the genre itself? Third acts of its ilk typically just tie up all the crap they previously set up in a cat and mouse chase. Detention definitely isn't like that.

Now to reiterate; that's not to say you'll like it more for morphing into something else vastly different from the first half hour. If someone told me they thought it was not only a bad film but a total mess, or that each new thing introduced into the story was a bad choice and made it worse/stupider, I could understand that. The elements introduced fitted my tastes I guess...

This film was *beep* terrible, a stupid parody of multiple films, absolute *beep* *beep* Not another teen movie is miles better than this utter turd of a 'film'.

Actually, it has a plot and a very interesting one, but you get to the plot after one hour, so I get it when you say the first 20 minutes made no sense, but you should watch the whole movie, it's good.

walking out of a movie 20 minutes in is like abandoning a book 20 pages in. A movie can make a 180 turn around halfway through... that's what the climax is for. it takes some time to set the scene for movies sometimes. plot twists are a thing, which is something this movie did very well in. had you stuck around longer, you would have known. how do you know there's no sense of plot if you've not even finished the first act?

Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?

Honestly what kind of idiot sees a film without viewing the trailer before hand. I mean if you had bothered to have watched the trailer you would have known what kind of film you were going in to see. Obviously, you have internet and obviously you have the skills to type. Isn't hard to just look up a movie before watching it.

Your last comments shows how incredibly retarded you are because it's not a horror film. It's a satire with elements of science fiction and horror.

Seriously, don't complain about something when you were stupid enough to pay money for a product you knew nothing about.

If you think this movie is bad then you haven't seen a lot of films. Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! (1998) is considered a horror film (the filmmakers took this film very seriously) and also one of the worst films ever made.

I do agree that the dialogue was a problem. The actor who played the killer, although admirable in his efforts, just didn't 'cut it' (no pun intended). The pacing at the beginning was way too fast for me - the words that appeared on screen disappeared before I could fully take them in and put it into context, but I was lucky since I got Detention from Red Box so I paused it to read what was being shown.

The movie was a hodge-podge of present day pop culture and 90s references with a touch of Breakfast Club, a heavy dose of Scream and some sci-fi elements all edited into a movie less than 2 hrs long. It succeeded sometimes and when it failed it just took me out my 'movie element.'

Despite major problems (beginning pacing, poor dialogue, clunky script = uneven tone, editing) I enjoyed it enough. I can only imagine how fun reading the script and doing rehearsals was for cast and crew. It was probably a better read than an actual movie.

Detention - 6/10

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