Monday, June 30, 2008

Movie Review - WALL-E




Ashley and I saw WALL-E on Friday night at the REX Movie Theater in Rexburg, the only first run movie theater in Rexburg. While I usually have some reservations about this theater due to the idiot students, I didn’t feel like driving to IF to see it. Gas is too pricey.

When I saw the previews for WALL-E, I approached it with cautious anticipation. While the visuals looked good, and while the mechanical voice of “WALL-E” was appealing,” I didn’t know if a robot who didn’t have an actual voice and great graphics could stand on it’s own for an entire movie.

CHARACTERS

While WALL-E has the awkward yet normal social desire to have friends (reminiscient of my teenage years), and while WALL-E was an obvious emotional ploy to get you connected…I think it worked very effectively. While the human characters are likeable, I think the robots steal the film because of the ability for us to relate to them.

Who can’t relate to being 14 years old and wanting a friend? Who can’t relate to being lonely? What about being misunderstood? Or realizing that the one standing in front of your was what you wanted all along?

These characters steal this film because they’re lovable, yet believable. How easy is it for a movie to create an emotional attachment and emotional manipulation with a character, all to leave you feeling kind of empty (a la King Kong 2005)?

Score – 19, but only because they couldn’t have more dialogue/speak

SOUNDTRACK/SCORE

Beauty is an understatement for this masterpiece. Thomas Newman, who also did Finding Nemo, The Green Mile, and The Shawshank Redemption, scores another home run with this score. The robots flying through space, and the score that goes with it, really helps you take in the wonder of the colors that Pixar used.

Score – 20

QUOTE/CATCHPHRASE

I think that just the name “WALL-E” is enough to land this, as well as his new buddy “EEEEE-VAAH,” are going to be around until at least the end of the year. While I’m not going to judge a movie soley based on a catchphrase, I really think they could have ahd more. While WALL-E’s Chaplin-esque characteristics really don’t warrant a need to have a catchphrase, I think it could have been better

Score – 18

STORY

Wonderful. Perfect. Spectacular. Can I come up with any other adjectives to describe this movie? A story about finding love, about appreciating what we have, about materialism and consumerism, and a story about a little yellow robot. But I feel I need to address one issue in this movie:

Many have talked about how there was an overpowering “Environmentalism” message, and how that would have detracted them. While there is such a message, I don’t see it being as political as people are making it out to be. I came away from that with the message that we need to appreciate what we have. I saw a glaring message of consumerism, and materialism, and what can happen if we don’t care. I don’t think it was a message about “Global Warming,” instead, it was a message about us as a people.

Story synopsis: Robot (WALL-E) is on earth, performing the task he has performed for 700 years…taking waste, compacting it, and stacking it. He loves human trinkets, and watches “Hello Dolly” religiously. Ship comes to earth, with EVE, looking for human life. He and her finally break the awkwardness and begin to form a friendship, all while WALL-E wants to hold her hand, and starts falling in love. They get to the ship, other robots don’t want the plant to get to the captain, and slapstick comedy ensues.

Score – 20+

REWATCHABILITY

This is a spectacular movie that will appeal to adults and children alike. What child wouldn’t want to see more WALL-E? What adult doesn’t want to see a happy story? What male wouldn’t want to see a chick flick hidden inside of a slapstick comedy (*GASP!* Did I just say that?)? I can’t wait for it to go to the cheap theater here in town so we can rewatch it over and over.

Score – 20

TOTAL SCORE – 97
IMDB Rating – 9.3 (#9 – IMDB Top 250)
Rotten Tomatoes – 97%

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice. I like the addition of the IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings.

He watches Hello Dolly, eh? I think that musical is highly underrated as is Newman. The guy is good. Not quite John Williams good, but probably the next best thing at this point.

When I first heard about Wall-E I didn't have any interest to see it, but after seeing the trailer prior to Indiana Jones I thought it was worth a look and your review bears that out.

The Lighthearts said...

The kids thought the movie was hilarious.

As for me... I enjoyed the movie, but not enough for WALL-E to overtake my current favorite Pixar film (The Incredibles).

brandt said...

Ariane, what made The Incredibles (in your opinion) better than WALL-E?

I was in Korea when the Incredibles was released, so I wasn't able to capitalize on the hype. I did find the Incredibles to be innovative in introducing a more serious matter into Pixar's realm of movies.

The Lighthearts said...

My ratings system isn't very technical. I usually just go with my gut instinct. For the incredibles it is less about the animation or anything else and more about how the characters interact with each other. I found the family dynamic humorous and very easy to relate to..as much as you can with computer animated characters.