Going in, I knew the biggest obstacle I was going to face when watching The Great Gatsby was Tobey Maguire. Specifically his voice. I can’t stand it. As the film’s narrator I knew there was going to be a lot of it. I was worried. And then it was justified because in The Great Gatsby, homeboy talks a lot. He narrates, then says what he just narrated in dialogue and in one instance, his narration and then the dialogue is accompanied by those exact same words flittering about on the screen.
The Great Gatsby is an over the top movie. It would actually be in the dictionary under the definition of an “over the top movie.” But hey I give the director, Baz Luhrmann, an A for effort and A for intent. He just failed to stick the landing. And it’s never ever going to not be jarring to see people doing the Charleston to a shitty Will.I.Am song. But I besides that, I had no qualms with the music. To me it made sense. It definitely made more sense than the casting of Maguire as Nick Carraway, the story’s wide-eyed third wheel. Maguire doesn’t look like a movie star in a movie that requires all of it’s leads to look like movie stars. John Krasinski would have been a good Carraway. Even Justin Timberlake would have been better. Maguire comes off like Henry Rowengartner, a little too young for the big leagues. Props for ditching the Nick/Jordan hook up. No way that would have been believable. I mean, it would have been like a movie set in the roaring 20’s with Jay Z songs in the soundtrack. Oh wait…
If you want to see the movie, then see it on the big screen. It deserves at least that much.
Photos: Warner Bros.
Giddy Up America 
The movie was just great, it had a great story and depicted the Roaring 20’s wonderfully. Great Gatsby veterans might not prefer this version over Robert’s back in the 70’s but it’s really entertaining and worth watching. The only problem I had was some of the soundtrack, and by some, I mean Jay-Z. You read right, Jay-Z. I would of preffered jazz to depict the 20’s alot better but the soundtrack didn’t kill the movie so there’s nothing to worry about it.