The Imitation Game
The Imitation Game
PG-13 | 28 November 2014 (USA)
The Imitation Game Trailers

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Reviews
adonis98-743-186503

During World War II, the English mathematical genius Alan Turing tries to crack the German Enigma code with help from fellow mathematicians. Although i definitely did not hated 'The Imitation Game' i also expected for something more perhaps? I mean as far as perfomances go it was alright but it was no masterpiece either and for sure i have seen better from both Cumberbatch and Keira but it's just that the trailer showcased so many things happening and the movie was a bit too long and kinda boring in some middle parts that kinda hurt it. (5/10)

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rabbitmoon

Brilliant soundtrack, well edited, well written, well acted, and good pacing to maintain a good level of emotional engagement. Its very watchable and exciting. But there's something deeply frustrating about the decisions behind the screenplay. It clearly focuses on Turing's unfair persecution for being gay - this is the tragic element that we're left with as an audience. Which is absolutely worth a story, for sure. But if that's your angle, then why did they focus on enigma/bombe and miss out so much of his contribution to modern computing? They make out he pretty much worked alone on designing/building/running the bombe (called Christopher in the film) which is just unnecessarily false. I'm still waiting on a decent film or mini-series to portray the incredible events of what happened at Bletchley during the war: it was truly a collaborative effort. Gordon Welchman has just as much input as Turing on the bombe machine, which was first invented by the Poles anyhow, and built by engineers at Letchworth. There were eventually many bombe machines - not just one that Turing seemingly built with his own hands in a hangar-sized 'hut' (the huts were a lot smaller). The whole design/point of the bombe was to exploit a flaw in the enigma, requiring a 'crib' - a known phrase like 'heil hitler' used in the film, which they could match up alongside the cypher to extract patterns. The film delivers this discovery as a eureka moment at the bar, well after Turing has built the bombe! Which makes no sense and is confusing to the viewer as to what the original intentions of the machine actually were. The film implies there was a spy in Turing's team. Really - is this kind of cinematic device really necessary to keep audiences engaged? Was the REAL story not interesting and exciting enough?! When told properly at least. There are far more angles to the story - how so many misfits/outliers were brought together to collaborate on genius ideas, with huge determination and drive. The idea that the seemingly impossible can be achieved. Its a really inspiring moment of history that should surely be pushed more in today's world. Its a great film ciematically, but its annoying how the personal agenda of the book's author and film's screenwriters biased the film away from truth towards one aspect of Turing's life, and in doing so failed to really do either angle as much justice as was deserved. It might have also been fitting to have shown how much sexual abuse happened at Sherborne school when/where Turing attended, which continued well through the 20th century according to well researched documentaries and reports, but I guess that's not quite as pleasing for sunday afternoon cinema audiences.

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jamiepaton-33876

This is a great film. When I saw the trailer for it I was worried I would get bored at one point because this usually isn't my type of movie. But because of Benedict Cumberbatch's outstanding performance I was gripped from start to finish. I wasn't very familiar with the story of Alan Turing but I knew he cracked the Enigma and had to hide that he was gay for many years. But that was pretty much all I knew. The film enthralled me. I payed attention to every single thing that happened in this movie. And that payed off at the end. At the end of the film some text appears telling us that Alan Turing committed suicide through cyanide poisoning after undergoing Chemical Castration for 2 years. When this happens you see the team throwing their work into a fire whilst cheering and laughing. This ultimately made the film even more emotional. Through Cumberbatch's incredible performance you really see how attached he becomes to his machine "Christopher" and it was truly emotional to watch I have to recommend this too everyone interested in history or film in general

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awalquist

Reading the Wikipedia page on Alan Turing and his invention was more captivating than watching this movie. Watched based on a friend's recommendation. Would have liked to see more of how the "bombe" was designed and how it worked. Basically skipped through all of the emotional fluff, it was predictable and overemphasized. Didn't feel like the characters developed in a very natural way even though the film is nearly 2 hours long. Perhaps I had the wrong expectation.

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