Runaway - art or ego?

Well, Kanye West has got his head the furthest up his ass it's ever been.

I just finished watching Runaway, his "feature length film" (34 minutes and 33 seconds), and I am certainly filled with emotion. Largely in part boredom and contempt, but not completely void of intrigue and amusement. Out of almost 35 minutes there were about 10 that were enjoyable. The film is more or less a series of intertwined music videos. The "videos" at about 15 minutes in and the ending video, starting at about 28 minutes in were enjoyable, mostly due to the soundtrack of what I can only guess is material from his upcoming album. Like the film itself, the music had very few enjoyable moments. Scored by his unbelievable production abilities, you at many times are left with hope that you are about to hear what you've grown to love from Kanye's history. No such luck. Most of the music is gorgeous beats and instrumentals, rudely interrupted by the worst rapping out of West to date, both in flow, style and lyrics. The rap is especially disappointing because some of the music is quite possibly the best he's done so far. Makes you wish he wrote and produced this album for another MC. As mentioned before, the video's total failure is saved by the middle and the ending videos and music. At about 15 minutes in, the main video for the song "Runaway" begins. With blatantly over the top lyrics and an epic melody, Runaway hold it's place in Kanye's top tracks. Easily belonging on what you could've only hoped would be a continuation of West's album 808s and Heartbreaks, he has truly shown that his strengths rest outside of the pure hip-hop genre and are perhaps better placed in an almost crossbreed of modern hip-hop and rock reminiscent of Phil Collins. But, unfortunately, it appears Kanye has attempted to return to his roots, but perhaps dug a bit too deep.

The film ends with a completely ridiculous wrap up to his beyond pretentious story telling with a sample of another hopeful track. Unaware of the name, I am looking forward to hearing the rest as soon as possible. The track begins with a copy cat vocal style borrowed from Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek." By the time you begin to get annoyed with him ripping off another artist, again, the beat kicks in and takes a completely different direction, and a pleasant one at that. Though I very much enjoyed those two tracks, and the music over all, Kanye's rap game has suffered so much that I am less than enthused for his upcoming album. All and all the film was entertaining, at least worth watching once. The gorgeous cinematography alone is worth viewing, even with the sound off. However the smug, over the top, artsy story telling is plagued even more by the down right horrific acting and foolish, and at times borderline insulting, imagery and in my opinion proves that Kanye's vast creativity is once again plagued by is even greater ego and need to out due everyone else. I have for the most part always been a fan of Kanye West, and to this day I think he is one of the greatest producers music has ever seen. He has a creative mind beyond most artists. The film attempts to be a pure triumph, but falls short and lands somewhere in the area of student art film.

Borrowing a rating system some of my friends and I have used at times, out of 10, Kanye West's film 'Runaway' is a 4 trying to be a 9.