I understand what Fight Club is supposed to be (unlike Donnie Darko, where the movie itself doesn't even know what it's supposed to be). I understand the satire on consumerism, and I don't see how anyone couldn't, because it's SHOVED so frantically into the viewer's face.

This shoving is the main thing I disliked about the movie BEFORE the surprise ending (which I also understand and I'll get to in a second). It gives us no room to breathe, and I don't just mean with the fighting where that can be a plus. I mean with the satire, with the commentary, with everything. I believe it was King_Friday who called the film "ugly" and I'm inclined to agree. I can be cynical too, but this movie basically shoves a swinging watch in your face and says "You are getting depressed nooooow! Life sucks! You are controlled by consumerism with nothing you can do! Woe is yoooou!"

Also, I've never really liked Fincher's work. None of it. Except maybe The Game, which is kind of fun. He just tries so desperately to be dark and cynical with his stylized cinematography moving through computer-generated vessels into the next scene (didn't he go through like a tea kettle in Panic Room or some shit? I was like, "Motherfucker show me the next scene!!"), or to shock us with grotesque imagery of close-up lingering shots on violence. He's like the cynical version of Mel Gibson or some shit, cuz he looooooves suffering.

Not that I hate all movies about suffering, but he thrives in discomfort, and he makes us as uncomfortable with his violence as he does with the startling lack of subtlety to his messages. All points he makes are lingered on to the point where it's almost as shocking as the violence. Show me something where I can draw a conclusion, where I can use my imagination, capture me, entice me. Don't cram overdoses in my face. It's the ugliest way to make a viewer watch, and the ugliest way to get your point across.

And yes, Fight Club could be about the ugliness, blah blah blah. I find all of Fight Club's MAYHEM very lame and timid. I could give two shits about the mayhem he's causing, because I don't believe it. By the time you find out he's two different people, you REALLY don't believe it. And upon multiple viewings, you sit and think, "You mean not ONE person on that airplane would come up and say, 'Who the fuck are you talking to?'" There's loads of that throughout the movie, but that's upon multiple viewings, and for me, the first was bad enough.

It's an ugly, trying-to-depress-cuz-it's-hip-to-be-a-cynic film that forcefeeds meaning and shoves violence in your face until you can't bear to watch. The violence is so large that it undermines any satire Fincher wants, but that's all right because Fincher's in-your-face delivery of his satire has already undermined itself. Its story feels forced, its violence is unnecessary, Brad Pitt is NOT a good actor, and the ending is merely the cherry on a gorgeous sundae of shit.

That's my feelings.

You can bring up specific scenes to counter me if you want, and you could be right disproving a lot of my stuff, because I haven't seen the film in a year or so. But these are my thoughts to this date regarding multiple viewings I've had of Fight Club.