This is my first review for IMDB. I've never felt the urge to write one before, but for this movie, I needed to. This is one of the worst movies I've seen in my life, and believe me, I've seen hundreds of bad movies before. The film centres around a woman who must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse. That's basically the whole premise. The bulk of the film focuses on visiting multiverses that are just plain bizarre, including a world where everyone has hot-dog hands. There are many absurd moments in the film that are cringe-inducing and not funny to watch, like two men trying to insert objects into their butts and a man getting spanked in some weird BDSM-style world. The movie keeps switching between multiverses and becomes extremely hard to follow. The editing is just awful. The message of the movie basically boils down to the importance of family and accepting others. That would be fine if they didn't shoe horn all the multiverse baloney into the movie. The way the message of family is delivered falls flat. By the end of the movie, I ended up not caring for the characters. WIthout spoiling the movie, the "sense of threat" in the movie ends up having no impact on the movie. The movie takes ideas from films like The Matrix, but the sense of progression for the "hero's journey" is badly written. Characters suddenly do things in the film with no prior development. The pacing is just bad. None of the multiverse moments are interesting or funny to watch. The action scenes are badly choreographed too. Michelle Yeoh is an actress whose work I have loved in the past. In films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Supercop, and Tomorrow Never DIes, she proves that she can perform in great action scenes. Unfortunately, this movie wastes that potential. Yeoh's performance in the film is fine, but it is not Oscar-worthy material, especially compared to the great Cate Blanchett in Tar. The same thing applies to Ke Huy Quan. Although he was my favourite part of the movie, his performance is nowhere as great as Brandon Gleeson or Barry Keoghan in The Banshees of Inisherin. Stephanie Hsu's character is painfully annoying in the film. She comes off as arrogant and rude, even though she plays a crucial role in the story and the movie wants us to sympathize with her. Jamie Lee Curtis, an actress I've loved in the classic Halloween and True Lies, is almost non-existent in the film. Her character only appears for a handful of moments, none of which are especially memorable. I do not understand what is so great about her or Hsu's performance that warrants a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
Overall, this is not just an overrated movie, but an awful one too. By far the worst movie to ever be nominated for an Oscar. In a year with great films like Tar, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on The Western Front, and even Avatar: The Way of Water, it's shocking to see that this film is the Oscar frontrunner. The fact that it is nominated with as many Oscars as The Return of the King and Titanic is laughable. To those putting this in their top 5 of all time, you really need to watch more films.
Overall, this is not just an overrated movie, but an awful one too. By far the worst movie to ever be nominated for an Oscar. In a year with great films like Tar, The Banshees of Inisherin, All Quiet on The Western Front, and even Avatar: The Way of Water, it's shocking to see that this film is the Oscar frontrunner. The fact that it is nominated with as many Oscars as The Return of the King and Titanic is laughable. To those putting this in their top 5 of all time, you really need to watch more films.