10 Overly Pretentious Movies We Should've Walked Out Of

4. Babel

Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel concluded his Death Trilogy just as Gerry opened Gus Van Sant's own trilogy on the subject, but where Gerry laboriously focused on two characters in a minimalist setting, Babel opts for broader brush strokes and attempts to portray the interconnected nature of existence through globally refracted prisms. Featuring multiple stories which span Japan, Morocco and Mexico, Babel features an international ensemble cast including Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal and Rinko Kikuchi as people caught up in the inevitability of fate and destiny. It is a movie in which seemingly inconsequential actions can have unforeseen consequences to people you may never meet - an intellectual attempt to explore the social and cultural ramifications of the Butterfly Effect. Unfortunately, Babel misses the mark considerably, and Iñárritu's free-wheeling approach to characterisation which worked so effectively in 21 Grams here misses the mark and leaves audiences with a sprawling, aimless and ultimately un-engaging movie. Overpraised at the time of its release, it's a hard film to like and is a victim of its over-earnest seriousness, leaving the audience feeling as disconnected from the movie just as the characters within it are from one another.