When I got the Facebook invitation to see the latest Pixar film with a large group of my friends, it sounded like something intended for.. a younger age group. A quirky robot that resembled ROB traveling across the universe to save the planet? I was hesitant to say the least, but it was Pixar - 'nuf said. I went on opening night and chilled with my friends at the mall for a few hours before it started. This was also the night that I got my Nintendo DS so I was in a pretty good mood already, and the film only made things better.
The first thing I noticed was, as expected from Pixar, the animation is incredible. There's plenty of detail while keeping in line with cartoon goofiness, but the thing that stood out to me was all the little kinks about the characters and environment that brought the world to life and can be appreciated at any age. Many of the way the creators do this are genuinely amusing as well, like when WALL-E explores familiar objects while shifting through trash that litters the Earth of 700 years in the future.
WALL-E is the story of a robot who stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth-Class, designed to clean up the deserted Earth, which was left in a polluted state of ruin with no visible signs of nature. He seems to be the only robot still functioning, but has managed to find his way by continuing to clean and explore, and replace his defective parts when need be. One day, a strange light brings his attention to a new robot that has traveled across the universe to assess the status of life of Earth. WALL-E's adventure takes him back through the universe to the spaceship where human beings currently reside, to help show them what Earth has to offer.
The main characters are all interesting, and personality is given even (or should I say especially) to robots like WALL-E. One thing that will get people to see this movie is just how darn cute he is. lol His rusty design is quite modest in comparison to other characters he meets later on, as is the innocence he displays in his eager curiosity to learn from and help other beings. Of course, the major thing about WALL-E's character, and coincidentally the most curious, is his feelings of loneliness and love.
My favorite part about the movie is the message behind the story. It can be taken as an environmental commentary on where the Earth is headed if we continue on our path of technology, and what that means for us as human beings. Are we reaching a point of efficiency to get what we want, or to get what we need? Should we create a future that is artificial or natural? I think the point is made acutely clear once we see where people are at this point in history, and perhaps this hypothetical scenario is intended to wake us up to dangerous consequences.
The only fault that I can find in WALL-E is that the story can be overly optimistic at times, and things change for the better rather suddenly without much reason. As a message, though, I feel like it works well to inspire that change. I enjoyed WALL-E immensely, and if you've been holding off spending your money on this one I highly encourage you to see it. Add it to the growing list of Pixar masterpieces.
To be honest, I wasn't really impressed when I saw the trailer for Wanted. Curving bullets, high-speed car chases, and Angelina Jolie can only mean another action-packed, mindless summer Blockbuster. Strange, though. The more of my friends who went to see it, the more I was hearing what a really cool movie it was, and the more I desired to see it for myself. Unfortunately, my plans kept falling through to see it with various friends, but I finally got the chance last week with friends from my college's Anime Society. Did it meet my initial pessimistic expectations? Eh, yes and no.
From the beginning I could tell that Wanted had quality to it. I knew it was based off a comic book so the content was already there, whether or not the original source was good. The first few scenes did a great job of creating interest and forming questions in my mind as to what was going to happen next and how these things were even possible in this world. The acting was solid and the special effects were cool, albeit kind of overdone at times.
As the movie progresses, so do the action scenes and special effects. Bullet curving and car chases are frequent, as are other spectacular feats of human ability. All very cool. If there's any reason to see this movie, it's exactly the reason I was so quick to condemn it in the first place - there's lots of action and it adds up to a Blockbuster, but it works. Plenty of adrenaline and excitement, tasteful even for me.
Where this movie falls is when it comes to explaining how or why this action is taking place. As I'm sure some of you have feared, the bullet curving isn't really explained. In fact, most of the amazing feats are simply passed off onto a special ability of these characters that, in my opinion, should only account for a heightened awareness of sorts. At other times, training these abilities in the movie consists of a sped-up montage that makes you wonder how much time has really passed and how they could skip so many steps.
But alright, so let us grant that these people can do all of these incredible things. Why are they following their course of action? Without going into too much detail, the basic premise involves "an elite group of assassins," who choose their kills based on a method of reading fate more or less. But where this came from is vague and convenient, and I'm not really sure how it's fate if they can be either successful or unsuccessful at the task. And I don't understand why the main character changes his mind so quickly and with such determination throughout the movie.
The entertainment value is up there, but timeless quality is lacking. In the end, I think I went in there with too high of expectations, but that's not to say that it's a bad movie. It isn't, and the cool scenes are a testament to that. But if you've heard that it's great all around, I'd have to call it overrated. Beyond the sketchy story-line, though, I think there is something to be said for the simple underlying message that's evident from the last words the main character speaks: "This is me taking control of my life." I think that's an important theme to respect.
