Branded (2012)

Great Film overall

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The chief flaw to "Branded" is that it is slow and ponderous. Also, I developed little to no sympathy for the main character, Misha, although I tried hard to have some understanding of his dreams and goals. A quick synopsis might be:Poor kid, hit by lightning, finds success and fights alien invasion. OrStrange otherworldly forces manipulate humans for their own ends. "Invasions of the Body Snatchers" meets "Monsters Inc". The aliens-- cartoon-like in form--have a strange symbiotic relationship with the humans they inhabit. The aliens appear to thrive off the gluttony (or avarice, or other emotions) generated by the intense marketing efforts. What is the origin of Misa's "marketing talent?" Did it have anything to do with his being struck by lightning as a child? The answer to these questions are still somewhat unclear to me for some reason. Also, the attraction between Misha and Abby felt forced and unnatural. For a time, I thought that Bob and Abby were aliens recruiting Misha for nefarious purposes. So, in summary, I thought the film took too long to get to its point and the main characters Misha, Abby and Bob were not likable or heroic in any way.

I was curious when I saw this movie listed on Netflix in the "Science Fiction/Fantasy" genre. Hardly. This is a political and cultural satire and allegory, a couple levels higher than Man Men. It could easily elude viewers bringing to it more literal expectations. The idea that the world is a conspiracy of brands isn't an entirely new one. Fifth Sense explored this theme in film and even earlier, Heinlein in his classic novel, The Man Who Sold the Moon. But Branded additionally gets into the contradictions of capitalism and communism, and their similarities -- especially total control in each case of the cultural milieu and the social conversation. Very heavy, especially the depiction of Belarus as a single well-integrated ad. The same could be said of the United States of America. Maybe even more so.The film's production qualities are excellent and the acting universally superior. I will recommend this film to all my friends who have the intellectual capacity for its appreciation.

The movie describes the destruction of the World by greedy corporations as they battle between themselves over the minds of the people, using any dirty tricks to manipulate us into "slavery" and "worship" of the brands they advertise. The movie is trying to portray ordinary men as stupid animals, a flock of sheep, unable to think and reason, blindly following every advertisement they are shown on TV. In the end, the "good" Governments step in and "shield" the masses with regulation prohibiting advertising and branding at all. Then finally tranquility rests upon the World... The movie uses very graphic imaging to draw the evil of branding by private enterprises and suggests that only Governments should be allowed to engage into advertisement, using Soviet Union as an example... Truly a brilliant piece of Communist propaganda!

I wanted to like this film more than I did. I admire its ambition, and I like the way it sets out to satirize the advertising industry and its effect on us. Unfortunately, it seems that the filmmakers had problems shaping their material into an elegant, effective film."Branded" is entertaining throughout -- and sporadically brilliant! -- but most viewers will probably feel, as I did, that this movie is wildly uneven. The tone of the film shifts in bizarre and disorienting ways; important plot-points are barely touched-upon; great chunks of time are skipped, often revealing that our main characters have changed in ways that are so profound that it seems some kind of further explanation is required; some very clunky narration attempts to tie everything together.The problems lie mostly with the script, which can't seem to decide how seriously to take itself. In the film's earlier scenes, as the forces of evil begin shaping their bozo nightmare, the film often projects a winking, campy sort of vibe. Later, the film is solemn and reflective. Then, it's an angry political screed. Each of these pieces, individually, has its merits -- but they sit at odd angles to each other. Combine this with the film's fractured and episodic method of storytelling, and you end up with a film that plays like patchwork. It's entertaining, but I think there's a lot of unintended dissonance created by the film's cavalier approach.The acting is actually pretty good; these actors were given some tough material to work with, given the script's shifty nature. All the actors do their best to provide their characters with strong through-lines, and they mostly succeed. That is to say that, even though the script and the tone are all over the place, the actors do a good job of providing solid and centered performances. I was frankly surprised that the acting worked as well as it did in this film.The cinematography and effects are also worth a mention. The camera-work is top-notch, and the CGI "monsters" which appear in the film's final third are rather clever creations.Overall, I got the impression that this was a wildly ambitious project undertaken by a crew that wasn't quite up to the task. And yet, they succeeded in creating a great-looking film of ramshackle construction. It entertains and provokes some thought, and there is a great sense of enthusiasm in the production.