UTEOTW -- a visual dream?

I'll be honest, I was skeptical at first when I heard we were watching this movie in class. And then once we started, I was completely confused for the first few scenes. For a movie that was filmed in the 90s, it was one of the more futuristic works I'd seen in some time. After some time, the visual characteristics of the movie became more blatant and exposed. I feel like saying some of the images in this movie were very digitally enhanced might be an understatement. The scenes where Sam and Clare were with Sam's parents testing the machine that would allow his mother to see whatever he was thinking were especially concentrated with an array of different images. All of them were digitized to the point where I was straining my eyes to decipher what was on the screen. Personally, this type of visual representation wasn't at all aesthetically pleasing to me. Maybe it's because the images in movies I watch are in no way distorted or become cause for any serious looking into, but regardless I wasn't as drawn to the images as others might have been. I'm assuming the director as trying to get a point across by doing that, I'm just not sure I want to understand it.

The one thing that really bothered me, and it came up in class discussion on multiple occasions, was (that's right, you guessed it) THE SOUNDTRACK. I really can't come up with words to describe how bothered I was. For me, a movie soundtrack is supposed to make you remember the feelings that were invoked in you while you were watching it. Like when I hear "Don't You (Forget About Me)" by Simple Minds, I automatically think of "The Breakfast Club". Or when anyone hears the orchestra pieces from Harry Potter, you obviously think of Harry Potter. I relate music to how I felt during a movie or how the characters were feeling. If a slower song is playing, then it's a more melancholy scene. And oppositely, if it's a fast-paced song, then something that I should probably pay attention to is happening. This movie did NONE of that for me. I really think the downfall was picking the songs before the movie was produced. That's essentially doing it backwards because then you have these songs that you're desperately trying to make work instead of letting it all fall into place; it should be effortless. UGH I'm getting so frustrated thinking about it. It just didn't fit at all. I think at times (or through most of the movie) I was noticing the music rather than the images. But hey, that's just me.

All in all, UTEOTW wasn't awful, but it wasn't up there with the greatest either. However, I will give it to the director, the imagery was at times very interesting and like a breath of fresh air (especially with the road movies). Other than that, I can't believe there's a 9 hour version. UNREAL.