Dear John

Dear John: Movie Review

Initial Thoughts

Last week I polled my Facebook page “Kenneth’s Reviews” which movie they would like me to review, the winner of the poll was a chick flick by the name of “Dear John” a movie about a solider on leave who falls in love with a local college student. Being a teenage male, I disliked the idea of even watching the movie, but after viewing…I still don’t like it, but I now see why so many women fall in a love with the movie.

Romance: Writing/bond/etc 18 out of 25

Although the Writers cleverly added many issues and problems in John and savannas relationship, creating tremendous romantic suspense, something that makes women flip. The actual romance itself isn’t very realistic, as in reality no one could call in love, have an argument and make up from the argument, all within two weeks, its simply not realistic.

            The overall romantic story defiantly improves as the movie progresses, adding break ups, and even a few twists (no spoilers) but the story is actually very un interesting in the first 20 minutes. 

            However the aspect, which kills the romance for me, simply comes down to the main lovers age. Simply the fact that two very young adults are thinking about each other that much, doesn’t make any sense. It seems as if they have nothing else to do, espically savannah, a girl who is in college, and lives in what seems to be a pretty lively little town, complete with partys, and fun loving teens her age. And yet for some reason, she explains that she thought about him non-stop everyday. Same thing with John, even though he doesn’t have very many close friends in the town, he is still in the army, and you would think that he would have made some friends in the military, or have other problems or issues on his mind, now later in the film his perspective does change, however in the beginning this problem still stands.

Story Line – 20 out of 20

The story line is kind of interesting and new in some ways, the majority of the storyline occurs while the two are apart from each other, opposed to many other chick flicks which occurs while the two lovers are together.

            Also in many chick flicks there is usually the role of the “antagonist” is played by a rich lover who also wants the main female love interest. However in Dear john, the role of antagonist is played by life, and the hardships that come with being away from home as a solider. Many women can relate to this aspect of the movie if their husbands or boyfriends have a dangerous job or works a lot, or simply doesn’t talk to them as frequently as they should be, this clever plot device, attracted many women because they could relate to savannah and even though many of the scenes when they are apart are focused on john, the women audience is thinking about what the savannah is going through, and how worried she must be. To a female viewer this makes the story much more real, especially if they are going through a similar situation.

Characters 12 out of 20

Many of the character’s are in quiet a predicament, where their personality’s are realistic and actually kind of interesting due to their past and present circumstances, especially the main characters. However the only characters I actually felt any emotion for, was johns father, and Tim. Why? First the acting quality for some characters (especially john) was simply below par, secondly Amanda seyfriend portrayed savannah more like a silly immature teenager, even when she was trying to be serious near the beginning of the movie, someone who is immature at the beginning will simply not be taken as seriously near the end of the movie. And when someone is immature the audience will simply not care as much about what their problems are. If it weren’t for the fantastic story, this character would have “died.” 

Acting quality 10 out of 15

I have already covered many of the acting quality notes in the last section. So just to recap, channing tatum (John) was by far the worst actor in the movie, I am aware of his role as a solider, but the last time I checked, soliders still had souls, throughout most of the movie he speaks in monatone and gives very few human emiontions. Even when hes angry and punching people it seems fake. Amanada seyfriend played savannah way to childish, and immutere even when it was supposed to be sierious. Richered Jenkins who played johns dad, did a very nice job potaringing someone who was autstic, his persoanality is kept mostly a secret and is revealed slowly through the movie.

Overall writing/directing 9 out of 20

One aspect that made me mad was all of the freaking time laspes! More than half of the movie is spent seeing boring time leasps with stupid chliched monotone dialoge played over the top, whats more, they monolge most of the dear john letters all at once, leaving no suspence for any others. The writing does get better as the movie moves forward, adding some interesting plot devices. However as the writers add more and more interesting plot devices the pacing gets worse and worse. Making it harder and harder to follow the story.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final verdict for Dear John is a

69/100

Mediocre

Pros

Fantastic and interesting story

Clever romantic writing

Cons

Irritating time lapses

Poor pacing late film

So-So’s

Mediocre acting quality

Characters are either poorly acted or poorly written  

Any man would cringe at this film, however almost every women will almost instinly fall in love with it. Men even though you might(will) hate this movie (trust me) I highly suggest seeing this movie with your sweetie on a date, she will think of you much more highly!