Critically acclaimed 'mother!' by D. Aronofsky rated a foreboding 'F' with CinemaScore's US audience

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I get Darren Aronofsky confused with Danny Baranowsky.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden for me.

 

[KissingSunlight]

I like his movies, but I really can't stand Jennifer Lawrence so I'm avoiding this one.

I saw it. Once you figure out what story it's retelling it was pretty boring and obvious. Yeah, scary and 'shocking' in a jump scare/how far are they gonna push it way but...meh...

What story is that?

Spoiler

Genesis/Old Testament. A mother and father visit them, sons fight to the death, people worshiping a false statue, sacrificing of a first-born, and fire/bullets purging what was supposed to be a paradise life.
Its just a retelling of Bible stories

Now, I've never actually seen 'Mother!', but...

Spoiler

From what I've read on Wikipedia, it's apparently supposed to be about how 'Mother' Nature is being destroyed by Humanity, which is why the House's distruction is a vital part of the story. It's an Environmental Message, not a Religious one. Could be both, or it could be up to the Viewers imagination.

But yeah, since I really only care for Western Animation, I don't really plan to go see this film.

I guess that's fair. I can see it either way. The Biblical interpretation to me fits a little clearer with some of the details, but I guess the general 'Mother Nature' take fits technically better as not all the details line up exactly for Biblical shit. Although the Nature view is more generic and murky.

Honestly, it can be seen in a few ways. I recently saw a YouTube video comparing various scenes to stories in the bible. One thing I came out of the movie with was the idea that Jennifer Lawrence was playing an existential woman. It shows her age throughout the movie. It addressed a lot of things that women have to deal with.

 

[Pyrian]

Film criticism and film sales have long failed to correlate much, if at all. It doesn't help that I can read a 10/10 review of mother! and immediately decide I have no interest in watching it. Sorry, Marter, you didn't exactly sell it. [http://cinemarter.com/mother-2017/]

 

[McElroy]

While I definitely like Aronofsky, I don't really go to the movies. Even less than I used to. Once it gets a home video release I will stream it or borrow the library copy.

OT: I doubt it's actually that bad. And as we all know, my opinion - even a reserved one - is king.

 

[Marter]

Here is a review from our resident Marter (Cinemarter? Just Marter?). Am sure he's still hiding around here somewhere, stealing tinned peaches from the pantry.

Can confirm.

Thanks for the plug.

See y'all around.

Really soon.

Maybe.

 

[Redryhno]

mother! is my second favorite movie this year. Baby Driver is still the best.

Why is there a disconnect? Have you looked what is popular today? Transformers and The Big Bang Theory are still making money hands over fist. Both of them are complete shit! So, I am not surprised that a movie that doesn't allow people to check their brains at the door would do badly. I am disappointed, but I am not surprised.

Pretty sure Aronofsky himself has said that you need to check your brain at the door because about the time you start thinking about the movie, you realize how easily it just falls apart.

 

[cathou]

lol, that is hilarious.

I mean, I wouldn't put any stock in it, considering Cinemascore gives something like A+ to every single Adam Sandler movie, but still, that is pretty awesome.

I do wonder why people don't like it though... I saw it, and I enjoyed it well enough. Thought it was pretty funny, actually. :\

but cinemascore is not an indication if the movie is bad or not. it's about if that movie have meet the expetency of the people that have seen the movie. if there's an adam sandler movie going out, and you actually take time to go see it in the theatre, i guess you expect a kind of bad goofy movie. if they poll you to see what you think of the movie, you probably would say it's ok, because you saw the movie you were expecting to see.

Mother's trouble is bad marketing. the trailers were misleading. the trailer make the movie look like a classic horror movie with full of gore and jump scares. but it's not that kind of movie. so of course when people choose what movie to see, think they are going for a movie with full of blood, scare, ghosts and demon, and you end up with Mother, at the end there will be a lot of complains because it's not people had paid for.

but critics are a bit immune to this. they are paid to review the movie, whatever it will be. critics will try to dont have expectations before ding their review. so when you got a movie with good critics but a terrible cinemascore, you got a movie with bad marketing.

a personal exemple i have of this is Watchmen. before i saw the movie in theatre, i've never read the comic, or even heard of it. But the marketing campain for Watchmen was shit. i hated this movie. i know it's not a bad movie, but do you remember the trailers ? go watch them again and try to forget anything you know about this movie. now tell me what you might expect of this movie based on the trailer alone ? it was marketed as an action packed superheros movie, on par with batman, superman and x-men. but it's not ! so of course just after the movie if you asked me what i was thinking i would have reply, this movie is horrible !

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I thought it was alright but it's got the same problem as every allegory, which is that it's not interesting on a human level once you understand that everything you're watching has no inherent value because it always means something else. And J-Law is always playing grown-up, though everybody else is great in it.

 

[Mau95]

It's weird, reviews have been either really positive or really negative, I'm told.