Mugdown Movie Review: The 2024 Presidential Debate
I have two words to describe the Sept. 10 presidential debate: utterly derivative.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris co-star in this underwhelming sequel to the 2020 showing of the same name. Trump returns in this edition, reprising his previous role in which he shared the stage with dichotomous co-star President Joe Biden.
In an interesting and as of yet unexplained casting decision, Harris was swapped in for Biden last-minute. Rumors abound that she’s the DEI hire. Between her womanhood satisfying the Bechdel test and her ambiguous race — what is she, Indian? Black? Something like that — she’s the perfect cast for a studio saturated with old white men.
The lighting was subpar, audio cues were audibly bungled and the emotional range of the narrators was reminiscent of Stephen Hawking.
The plot was incoherent, characters frequently deviating from the narrative to go on tangents or, occasionally, disregarding narrative prompts entirely. Trump’s grasp on his lines seemed shaky at best, and resulted in a floundering attempt at improvisation.
The story itself was cliché. There was no romantic subplot, absolutely no chemistry between the characters and negligible character development. No character arcs, minimal plot progression — It was as if the actors kept repeating the same lines over and over with no deviation or room for emotional growth. A multi-cam sitcom setup may as well have been implemented.
What the stars lacked in chemistry they made up for in close-up facial acting. The eye contact in this production was riveting — so much depth conveyed in a single glance. After several back-and-forth lines, the moment Trump and Kamala’s eyes first drifted from the camera and found each other was magical. Sparks flew, silent feelings were shared, and the audience finally began to see that something was going on here. Sadly, it lasted but a moment.
Overall, a disappointing performance lacking as much in plot as in line delivery. We can only hope the reboot in 2028, starring Kanye West and Vermin Supreme, will be better.
— Batt-atouille
The Battalion has a rat infestation, and one of these filthy rodents found its way onto our staff. We discovered him deep in the sewers under Sbisa after a long shift of hiding under the head chef’s hat. Now, he loves writing for us just as much as he loves pulling hair. When he’s not busy in the dining hall kitchen or writing articles for the other “publication” on campus, he cooks up articles for us. We’re happy to have him on our team, even though he leaves a copious amount of health code violations in his trail.