Asian leads in a big budget Hollywood movie are a big deal for people who never see people who look like them on screen. That's where most of the hype came from - excitement (some of it manufactured and emphasised by media outlets to show they understand the value of progressive representation) from fans about a movie that has a lot of Asian, and especially Chinese, cultural references.

The movie was a bit wacky but I feel it squandered a lot of good, silly ideas by lingering on them too much, and trying to tie it all together at the end in some coherent theme. It felt like the producers overrode the creatives' control over the project because the producers have been doing it longer and 'know what sells'. So many movies are ruined by creatively bankrupt executives desperately trying to make themselves relevant and killing a project as a result.

It was hardly the best film of the year, and it didn't reach the potential it might have if corporate interests hadn't stomped on the imaginative ideas at the heart of the story. However, it was financially successful and won Best Picture, so maybe the next time they have a big-budget Asian movie it will be more like a Stephen Chow film and less like a formulaic money-maker aimed at the lucrative Chinese market, a la Shang-Chi. It's a good thing the movie was made, even if it wasn't that great in the end.

I'm a fan of "show, don't tell". This movie spent the first hour explaining the logic behind its world, by one character telling another about it.
It didn't catch me, at all.

No, I absolutely detested it. It was the equivalent of that old trend where girls would do stupid stuff and scream “I’M SO RANDOM.” The weirdness had no purpose. They were just pulling out stuff for shock value.

Not sure I can watch hot dog finger scenes again... So once and done for me.

Am I strange for never having ever heard of it until just a few days ago?

Not strange at all. I feel like we are always getting pushed to liking things that are overhyped. The movie did trigger my emotions so for me it was amazing; that's the beauty of films what you might like I won't and it's ok.

What movie from last year did you think deserved to be "best picture"?

Same. I generally like sci-fi stuff and like weird, reality bending stuff, but I just found the movie OK. Not bad, I still liked it, but not on whatever level it was getting placed on by pop culture. I understood everything happening in the movie, I wasn’t lost ever. I’m assuming this was being done by the Hollywood hype machine, desperate for a hit. I feel like this happens every other year or so where I’ll notice a movie comes out that everyone is talking about. Alot of times the movie comes out late in the year, but then almost instantly gets a big award, which will then get added to the trailers. It’s like, waitaminute, was there really nothing else good that came out this year or is this movie actually that good? I suspect there’s some sort of Hollywood pay-to-play system at work where studios buy out spots or something on movies they’re trying to hype up.