“It’s a mess of a movie, unfocused and half baked”: Matt Damon’s $54 Million Movie Made 2017 Even Worse For Him Despite a Promising Storyline

Success has never been a stranger to Matt Damon. Critical acclaim and recognition have always been right around the corner. Even so, there have been times when even the greatest avant-garde new-age artists end up taking a few wrong turns before learning the right one to take. In this case, the path is based on choosing good scripts and filmmakers to collaborate with.

Matt Damon stars as Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (2002) [Credit: Universal Pictures]

With films like Good Will Hunting and the Jason Bourne franchise to his name, Matt Damon has accrued enough credit under his belt to shelve his blockbuster A-list career to make space for some passion projects. However, like Tom Cruise, there seems to be no space in his filmography for films that lack a punch, except for a couple of numbers.

Matt Damon Sidesteps His Successful Career Arc

Ever since his early years in Hollywood and the premature Oscar win for the script of Good Will Hunting, great things were in store for Matt Damon. The steady climb through the confusing early Aughts could be mostly accredited to his involvement in the tried-and-tested spy thriller genre with the Jason Bourne franchise.

Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed [Credit: Warner Bros.]

Despite very few actors being able to deliver a good arc in the first decade of the 21st century, Matt Damon has been consistent in the quality of his work with films like The Departed, The Good Shepherd, the Ocean’s trilogy, and his Oscar-nominated role in Invictus. However, things began to take a turn for the worse as time passed and A-list stars more or less settled on the post-modern lackluster model of Hollywood.

No longer were the audience party to scripts like The Godfather, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Scarface, Taxi Driver, and Blade Runner that pushed the envelope. Films were mostly reproductions of imitations, remakes and reboots, sequels and spin-offs, and the lack of originality began to gnaw at the heels of artists like Damon.

As such, it’s understandable that the actor would put his highly successful and acclaimed spy to rest and pick up scripts like Downsizing, The Great Wall, and The Monuments Men. Each of these films has a heart, a unique story to support it, and promotes originality above all. Unfortunately for Damon, however, these films also represent some of the worst flops of his entire career.

Matt Damon Gets Betrayed By Downsizing

Matt Damon and Christoph Waltz in Downsizing [Credit: Paramount Pictures]

At its core, Downsizing is a modern sci-fi enhanced twist to the prevalent issue of housing and a critique of the rising property values. The pseudo-political tone of the script, however, fails to resonate with the audience, instead featuring Matt Damon as the lead actor in a movie that resembles a climate documentary more than a Hollywood blockbuster.

The film, directed by Alexander Payne, not only threw caution to the wind but also teetered between a political satire and its own script as a sci-fi comedy. The scriptwriter and director’s confusion was thoroughly palpable throughout the second half of the film which wildly deviated from Downsizing‘s original, intriguing, and interesting premise. And fans made sure that Damon knew about it in as many words.

One Reddit user, wei_ping comes right out and claims, “It’s a mess of a movie, unfocused and half-baked.” The $68 million film ultimately raked in a paltry $54 million, failing to break even at the box office despite being a family film and comedy released on the Christmas weekend. The sheer failure of the script to stick to its own titular concept of downsizing in the third act of the film made the Matt Damon film a rare failure in his otherwise impeccable oeuvre.

Downsizing is available to buy/rent on Prime Video and Apple TV.