WALL•E Review July 9, 2008
Posted by Will in movie review.Tags: movie review
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There were a lot of mixed feelings walking out of the theatre when I saw the latest Pixar adventure. It was cute, funny and the visuals were yet another step up for them (and the sound by Ben Burtt was great – but no surprise there, the man’s a genius). But I wasn’t experiencing the normal giddiness that is usually bouncing around my inner child after seeing Mr. Incredible or Nemo.
It’s really hard to avoid commentary on films now. Try as I might to avoid it, I usually go into a movie knowing a handful of opinions. Most people are pretty good at disclaiming if they are going to talk about spoilerish topics, so I avoid that before I go in. That said, I heard all about how the first part of the film is fantastic, but once Wall•E leaves Earth and boards the ship the story falls a little bit – and other opinions of the like.
I’d have to say I agree.
After seeing the full-length trailer a few months ago I was convinced that this film was going to be my favorite Pixar film to date. It looked amazing. Although it did actually LOOK amazing, the story started very strong and backed off a little bit once our pixilated planeteer left Earth. I absolutely loved every bit of the film until Wall•E started roaming the BnL star cruiser. The story wasn’t necessarily bad after that, it just wasn’t as good as Pixar usually is throughout a story.
The social commentary was brilliant – and very scary. It’s sad to watch this film and say, “that’s actually pretty believable.” Well, I’d say it’s pretty believable looking at America, I can’t speak for the rest of the world.
I don’t think I’m going to rush out to see Wall•E again in theatres, but I look forward to catching it on Blu Ray.
3 out of 4
What do you guys think? Should people go see it while it’s in theatres, or should they wait?
I loved it. Granted I fell asleep (I saw a late showing) during a few parts, I thought it was excellent.
I’m no movie buff, but I thought Wall E and Eva as characters were very well created, and the animation was mind blowing. I probably enjoyed the characters themselves more than the plot.
As for the social commentary, I thought it was fairly accurate. That’s way off in the future, but I definitely see us heading in that direction.
I grew up watching Short Circuit, and I couldn’t help but be so excited about seeing WALL*E because of so many similarities to Johnny5.
The soundtrack to WALL*E was breathtaking. I’ve already purchased the soundtrack, and have favourited ( <- look, a brand new verb!) most songs with Eva in it.
My friend commented on the fact that although this was an amazing Pixar movie, he left without any happy feelings. He became so depressed at the idea that society had digressed so far, and that our planet was inhabitable.
I did feel that there were two parts of the film, but I did enjoy the commentary in the 2nd half. Even today I feel that people are more involved in the screen before them than the people around them, and yes, our landfills are overflowing, and yes, we are polluting our skies… and yes, we are always assuming we’ll create technology to fix it all.
I feel that the happy credit ending makes up for the depression of seeing society degrade.
Also, I think the second half of the film is something to reflect on: The robots in this film are more “human” than the actual organic beings. Robots were with quirks and personality, while humans interacted only though a screen, did repetitive tasks, and were (in my opinion) hardly self-aware, and completely unaware of the relationship to things around them if they were not hardwired (via the chair) to it. Perhaps our dislike of the second half is a good motivation for us to change.
If you stayed through the credits (which you always should in Pixar movies) you would have seen an 8-bit version of the movie. I would really love to play that game.