Why do I do this to myself? I don't know, perhaps I'm on a mission to watch every movie ever. Perhaps I like to torture myself. But I did indeed sit down last night and watch the Justin Bieber movie. But let's clear something up first. I am in no way a fan of Justin Bieber, but I wouldn't say I hated him either. I really don't get all the venom that is tossed around whenever someone as much as casually mentions Bieber. Sure, he may be a little self-centered, but given the fact that he's become an international star in a few short years, I'll forgive him for thinking a little highly of himself. He may be annoying too, but if that's the case just don't listen to him. It seems that the hate being thrown around is purely a response to the completely hysterical and really creepy fanbase of tween girls that has grown around him. For every girl that want to marry Justin Bieber, there's a guy who wants to kill him dead.
So we'll start the review by saying that if you don't like Justin Bieber, you won't like this movie. I'm sure that was pretty obvious, but it's worth stating. I went into this movie dispelling my predispositions about Bieber, merely to view it afresh and without bias. And to be honest, it wasn't bad.
Never Say Never is basically a documentary following the life of Bieber from the origins of his talent, through to his discovery on YouTube and eventual stardom. The movie is pretty well balanced throughout, and the story flows quite nicely. The entire movie is based around the main event of his career, his sell out show at Madison Square Garden, and as we see his story progress through the actual documentary part we're treated(?) to several live performances from that show. It's cool to see these juxtapositions of a young boy playing a little guitar and the older Bieber giving it all he's got in front of thousands of screaming fans.
To be honest, I didn't leave with any more of a negative impression of Bieber than I already had. I figured this movie would justify the hatred that is aimed towards him, but although I found it to be a little bit pretentious at first when he's prancing around and not really talking to the camera, he soon loosens up and he seems like a nice enough guy. There's a part where his vocal chords become damaged and he has to postpone a couple of shows, and he really seems to feel bad about that. Sure, the movie could easily be skewed to paint him in a positive light, but there really doesn't seem to be that much awful about him.
The same cannot be said about his fans though. Seriously, what are they on? Do they not realise how damn creepy they are? If a bunch of guys were drooling over a 16 year old girl there'd probably be an investigation from the FBI. You don't see thousands of screaming guys at Hannah Montana shows, saying how much they'd like to marry her, and grabbing her at every opportunity. I don't know what it is with young girls, but Never Say Never has its fair share of clips of hysterical girls literally crying because they get to see Bieber in person. CREEPY.
So yes, all in all, it's not a bad film. Sure, it's full of people saying how amazingly talented he is, but these are his family and people who signed him. Of course they're gonna praise him. You can't even trust Michael Moore to make an unbiased documentary, people. Besides, I didn't realise before I saw this movie that Bieber can play a whole load of instruments, and is actually quite good at them, and at dancing too. He certainly has some talent, and good on him for making the most of it. I'm not gonna become a Belieber anytime soon, and I certainly still don't dig his music, but I'm not going to troll the internet saying how he should die just because a load of crazy girls want to somehow be the one to marry him because he looks nice and indirectly calls them "baby".
Never Say Never was a lot better than I thought it would be, especially as I thought it would be shit. It's a well paced and quite informative documentary, and if you're a Bieber fan it's definitely worth watching. I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than Big Mommas. If I were a Belieber, I would give it full marks, but since I don't particularly enjoy the subject matter I can't say it totally captivated me. But it was still well made.
My rating: 3/5
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