Movie Review: WALL-E
Pixar can do no wrong. The reigning kings of animation have done it again with WALL-E. It’s a kid’s movie with more heart than anything in recent years, save the other Pixar releases. I don’t normally feel so… how do I put it? Emotional! It makes me feel like a little kid again. I’m already drawn to cartoons, but WALL-E goes above and beyond my expectations and delivers a delightful film for those of all ages.
There is no dialog in the first 30 minutes or so of the movie. At least not in a conventional sense. WALL-E talks through beeps and clicks, similar to R2D2, but conveys his emotions more efficiently than trained Hollywood actors. Pixar’s ability to bring an inanimate object to life and make it an adorable character is one they seem to have mastered. From his binocular eyes to his wheels, each part of this robot is made to feel alive. The plot moves along at a brisk pace and never drags.
There are so many little details in the animations, background, and little character quirks, the robots with screen time really feel like characters. WALL-E is a living, breathing being, and is portrayed beautifully in this CGI masterpiece. The CGI looks amazing. All the dirt and grime, the smoke effects, the spaceship, and space itself look gorgeous. I thought their previous effort, Ratatouille, was stunning effects wise, but WALL-E raises the bar again.
The story is cute, the characters lovable, and the comedy is there. I’ve read comparisons of WALL-E to Charlie Chaplin, and they’re pretty accurate. Most of it is physical comedy, and just seeing the characters all interact with one another. But as I said, it appeals to all age ranges. It’s just a genuinely well told story and is very easy to enjoy.
The only bit that may bother some, is the underlying message. If you haven’t paid attention to the trailers, this may spoil it for you, but Earth is covered in trash. It is a very environmentally friendly movie and may seem like a bit of propaganda to some. It’s unfortunate that some people will complain about this like they did with Happy Feet. However, unlike the penguin flick, WALL-E doesn’t bring it to the forefront of the story and beat you over the head with cries for green peace. It leaves it in the background as a setting to illuminate the much bigger story and journey that WALL-E embarks upon.
I can’t gush about Pixar enough. I’m waiting for them to slip up somewhere. It seems as though they will continue to delight for years to come with all their future projects. I’m planning on seeing this one again, just to catch the smaller details I might have missed. I recommend this for the families, the kids, and anyone who enjoys animation or just a good film in general.
Movie Review: Wanted
Wanted is another movie in a long line of comic book adaptations. It is brought to you by Timur Bekmambetov, the director behind Night Watch and Day Watch, two films I caught on DVD. His ability to fill the screen with so much mayhem carries over brilliantly for this adaptation.
James McAvoy kicks some ass. His character, Wesley Gibson, is a loser working in a cubicle until the sultry Angelina Jolie enters and changes his life. He joins The Fraternity, a league of assassins, and changes his life forever. That’s the story in a nutshell. If I had to compare this to another movie, it’d be a combination of Shoot ‘Em Up, Fight Club and The Matrix. That’s saying a lot, because I liked all three of those movies. The story isn’t quite as deep or amusing as Matrix or Fight Club, but there are some very welcomed similarities throughout Wanted that make it enjoyable.
The actors do nothing new here. There were a few surprises though. McAvoy handles the action role really well. Morgan Freeman mails in the same performance we’ve seen him give over and over again, but uses some more colorful language this time around. And Angelina Jolie is hot. I don’t know if it was seeing all those tattoos down her back as she got out of a tub, or if it was watching her wield a shotgun while hanging out the front window of a car with her legs spread apart steering and bracing herself while speeding down a highway shooting at the bad guy. Either way, she was a joy to watch.
This is a violent movie. I have no issues with that. It’s rated R and for good reason. It’s a movie about assassins trying to kill other assassins. It has to be violent and bloody to make any sort of sense. And Timur does it all with style. The car chase scenes are so over-the-top, it may seem a bit unbelievable. And that’s where the film may lose some people. It’s not quite as crazy as Shoot ‘Em Up, but it comes close. Who wants dirty realism in their popcorn flicks anyway?
I walked out of the theatre satisfied. It was an orgy of mayhem that delivered on the thrills. I’m not so sure as to how faithful an adaptation it was, but I had fun. Don’t expect the next Matrix. This isn’t nearly as deep. But if you want to see an action movie in the same vein as 300, this is your ticket.
Dragonball (2009) Will Be Awful
I can’t think of an anime that has been turned into a Hollywood movie that has done well, in the existence of Hollywood. Maybe this is because I’m young, or maybe it’s because it has never been done. Take the most recent example, Speed Racer. Even when directed by the Wachowski brothers, getting good reviews, and offering a PG rating to bring in families, it flopped harder than a 300lb tuna on the deck of the S.S. [JOKE HERE].
I remember the Speed Racer cartoon when I was younger and watched it and I remember it well, but I never had a desire to really see it stretched out on the big screen. Transformers worked, so maybe the studio was looking to capitalize on another gem from so many others’ childhoods. But Transformers, along with G.I. Joe, may be in the rare circumstance that they transfer well over to the live action format. Unfortunately, a beloved anime is being transformed into something that will torture any fans’ very soul.
From the casting alone I want to call this movie dead in the water. Not that I don’t think Justin Chatwin can act, it’s just that I don’t see him as a young Goku. Nothing about him screams Asian mythology. And I just know Piccolo is going to look like a man with green paint on his skin or a cheesy CGI recoloring. I love Dragonball. It was a great series. I really don’t want to see it get a live action treatment. It won’t benefit well at all.
The story worked because it was about an innocent little kid that had enormous strength. He fought off the bad guys pretty easily, but there was an innocent charm to his abilities that made it all work. Chatwin, at age 26 doesn’t exactly exhibit these qualities of boyish nature Goku has.
Look for this to loudly crash into theaters sometime in 2009 and quietly sulk away when it fails to gross half of what it cost and is chewed alive by critics.
(Note: I really want this to be good, but have faced reality.)
Zack Snyder Interview on the Watchmen
An interview with Zack Snyder is up at Collider.com where he discusses his new film, The Watchmen while attending the 34th Annual Saturn Awards.
Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk
Another Marvel superhero movie during the 2008 Summer Blockbuster season. The biggest problem to overcome for this movie was being better than the last movie, which is does, easily. I didn’t despise the 2003 effort by Ang Lee, but I certainly didn’t care for it, either. Mutated poodles just don’t make for an intriguing villain (and I have a thing for well-crafted villains). But The Incredible Hulk solves that problem by introducing an equally strong nemesis, The Abomination. It just makes sense. After the umpteenth time I saw Hulk smash a tank, you wanted to see him brawl something — a robot or other monster (poodles excluded).
There isn’t much to really review here. It was as I expected, a typical summer blockbuster. That means there was little to mentally digest, but an orgy of special f/x exploding on screen. The action was fun, the Hulk seemed strong, but never so strong that it seemed ridiculous. It genuinely looked like he struggled when lifting some objects. I’m still wondering whether this was a sequel or a reboot. Elements of the film suggest both. It seems to pick up right where the first left off, but the events seemingly never happened.
The tone of the movie was a bit uneven. In the beginning, it was a very serious attempt at showing the origin of Bruce Banner. It reminded me of the ending to each episode of the TV series, where Banner walks away and the sad music plays, the same thing made fun of on Family Guy. But somewhere in the middle of the movie, it throws a few jokes that don’t mesh well with this tone. That may be one of its problems. It seemed to take itself too serious. It felt melodramatic, and I have a strict policy of keeping melodrama out of my action movies.
It was fun, made for a good watch but offers little beyond a better, revised version of the 2003 catastrophe. What it really does is set up for the big movie in 2011, The Avengers. It will feature, at least, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and possibly the Ant-Man. Aside from The Fantastic Four and The X-Men movies, most movies include only one hero at a time. This could be a shift in the way these blockbusters are made. It had me wondering whether or not we’ll see Edward Norton, Robert Downey Jr., and the other stars all in one mega-movie? That could be huge.
New Coen Brothers Film
The trailer for the new Coen Brothers’ film, Burn After Reading, was attached to Get Smart. Can’t wait to see what the Coens give us after last year’s excellent No Country.
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