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Something you should know about me, that i'm no hipster, i don't enjoy trashing old movies just to piss off people, but i'm also not stupid, i don't praise a movie, just for the fact that it's already praised, meaning, that i don't review this movie as "the best movie ever made", i review it, just like any other movie, if it's good, ok then, if it's bad, it's bad, even though i'm fully aware of the timing of these movies, but i'm against the saying that "old movies are better than new movies", or "all classics are good movies", i think that a good movie is a good movie no matter if it's produced in 2014 or 1914.
Citizen Kane is one of the most boring movies i have ever seen, i literally lost the ability to live while watching it, i couldn't get through it with one sitting, i had to pause, take a rest and then go back, and i don't usually force myself into a boring movie, but i had to this time, because it's citizen Kane, it's "one of the best movies of all time", so i wanted to see what's that about.
The introduction of the movie was absolutely horrible, that march news segment was unwatchable, and hard to recover from, it had a narrator with an awful voice, everything was so fast pasted and shallow, that made me loss my interest in the movie from the very beginning.
The story wasn't bad, but people are impressed on how the story was delivered, but i think that it was awful and pointless, in fact, i think the story could have been a lot better if it was delivered in a normal matter.
After citizen kane dies, a director tries to put a news segment about him (march news), but he wanted to know what the last word that kane said means (rosebud) so he send Mr. Thompson to interview his wife and people who know him, so each one of those people starts telling stories about him, and these stories are recreated with these actors, so you get to see kane, gets old and young again so many times and so much that you start to feel dizzy and bored.
The worst thing about this movie was the timing of the dialog, there wasn't spacing between the lines, which means when an actor say his line, there wasn't enough time for the other actor to absorb what the first actor said so he can react to it, in fact, in most cases, the lines were just overlapping and all over the place, it felt like watching a community theater, were everybody deliver their lines so fast and so emotionless not waiting the other guy to say his line, and with that being said, it had one of the worst performances i have ever seen, when the credit roll, there was a screen saying that most actors here are new to the motion picture, well DUH! that was so obvious, all of them were terrible, specially Orson Welles with that fake emotions and fake smile, and that scene when he goes inside his news paper building for the first time and meets the editor Herbert Carter, he said Mr. Carter so many times, i wanted to smash my screen.
Not to mention, how the movie was shot, which didn't present a good atmosphere for the actors to show their performances, there wasn't a long scene with an interesting dialog, most scenes were very short and didn't focus on the actors faces, so you can't see them acting, or at least feel them, the lines were delivered so fast and you only get to see that from a far camera angle.
And before i conclude, i just want to point out, that people are saying that the cinematography and the camera work was so impressive "and did you see that shot, from the roof of the building to the room?" but cinematography and camera work should never make a movie one of the best movies ever made, if that's the case, then 50 years from now, Avatar will be the best movie ever made, and i'm 100% sure that most people who watched that movie didn't enjoy it a bit, but they praised it so they look like they get it, in fact, if 100 person on this website, made a list of 100 favorite movie, you will never see citizen kane on any of the lists, because no-one like this movie because they liked it, most people liked it because it's a big deal.
Overall, extremely overrated, boring and unwatchable, and no it doesn't make any difference that it was produced in 1941, because a bad movie is a bad movie, timing should not be involved, and no, i don't hate it to look "cool", i hate it because it was bad on every level.
4/10
