Marcado

Somewhere at the far edges of the absurd, the profound can be found. This movie can be enjoyed strictly as a comedy, it can be taken seriously by a few, but most should know this film reaches further than it could ever truly grasp. Branded is flawed, fun, and perhaps best enjoyed in an extremely tired, alternative state of mind.

A few reviews and reviewers note that this film does not live up to its own advertising. There is irony there, but what does live up to advertising? Advertising is amongst the biggest waist of resources in contemporary society. Not just in terms of illusory currency, but the waist of many of todays greatest artists, thinkers, and idea makers; professionals payed to spin lies and manipulate participants of mass media consumption.

Branded may only scratch the surface of many important current problems caused by modern media, but at least its creators and performers put themselves "out there" to ask some interesting questions. May more artists ask important questions, and help move us all to a better place.

It seems that a lot of people are threatened by simple truths in this film. Fat people don't want to be told that their food choices are being influenced by advertising. The negative ratings come from the mirror held in front of the faces of the audience, the negativity is a reflection of the shame of being overweight or the reflection of their own brands that they are wearing and the value they put in them.

This is an original film that doesn't fit the current Hollywood blockbuster mold, but rather it requires self-examination of what influences human choices.

There are a lot of word salad reviews on this movie already, no need for another. Go in with no expectations, come out with a cleaner view of the world and start to understand why you're craving your McDonalds/Coke/Idevice.

Check it out and be pleasantly rewarded - unless your own reflection reflects something too unpleasant to accept....

this could be better i guess

the first half of the movie goes really slow and you don't know what is actually going to come out of this - almost made me give up on movie.

if you decide to watch on there is some sort of a more interesting story going on, that is actually the essence of this movie: how brands are taking over the world, shaping it, shaping us. the way it is put, i guess it is only good that it was made in Russia, and probably partly produced by Russian company - makes the statement more bold, although still quite shallow

generally, what i liked about this movie is exactly this statement about marketing and mass culture of consumerism, too bad it misses some production touches, otherwise it could be quite good

It's several kinds of stories layered on top of each other including love story, spy story, critique of consumer culture, mystery, schizophrenic story, with an ending that is a bit magical realist. Keeps you wondering and guessing throughout. Great characters and story-telling draw you in and you care about them. Definitely worth seeing. I went into this film with no preconceptions other than a sci-fi take on consumer culture. Found the film very enjoyable and well told. Setting the film in post-Soviet Russia with an onslaught of American consumer capitalism was a nice angle to the "genre" of consumerism critique films. Frankly, I don't think the director quite knew what genre of the film it was but that's okay. Was a very fun ride.

...but too painful to watch for me to care. Not because it's a bit B-movie cheap, or has poor VFX, or some of the actors sorta suck, or the overbearing made-for-SyFy movie music, but because it is just terrible.

The main key thing to me is the total lack of reasonable storytelling. Every time something should be getting on with the story, a character stops to explain something about the plot to another character, or a news story explains it for us, or a full on and unashamed voice-over does it!