I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Sunday, June 29, 2008

It Only Takes a Moment

It's a rare event when I see a movie on opening weekend, but we got to the theater early, and we noticed that there were very few cars in the lot. So we switched going to see the latest Indiana Jones movie, which I'll probably see next weekend with my Mom, to seeing WALL-e Pixar, what can you say.

I recommend it. Heck, the theater was about a third full, mostly parents with really young kids (less than 10-years old, more like 3-7 years), and there was very little chatter. Which you'll think is amazing when you hear me say that the first half of the film is essentially a silent movie. Now, there's lots of sound, and the repeating playing of park/date scene from Hello, Dolly (and the song, "It Only Takes a Moment"). Yes, WALL-e and EVE make some speech sounds, but they're so minimal that you could replace them with lip reading and three dialog cards if the characters were human. And, WALL-e is Buster Keaton, no doubt about it the writers and animators did their film research. Like I said, it's a silent movie.

The second half of the movie is a mash-up of Titanic (what do you think "Axiom" refers to anyway) and 2001, A Space Odyssey. It's well done, but all the tell-tale signs are there. I'm not going to give you spoilers, there's other sites that'll do that.

There were some glaring plot bunny problems with the movie, and it gets somewhat sappy at points, but it's a very smart film. Really, I would point out some things that happen (that are crucial to the plot, not like how WALL-E's full power sound is the Macintosh "Bong" noise, hilarious BTW), but I'd rather you see them for yourself. Big hint, keep track of everybody and everything WALL-e comes in contact with. That's an important plot issue.

There's plenty of Pixar humor spread throughout. If you go to a matinee (which we didn't, also a rare event), the pre-feature short is worth at least that much. Really, Pixar humor at it's finest.

The over-all message and plot line of the movie is a bit didactic, but hey, the target audience isn't so much into subtlety if you know what I mean. Even with that, I enjoyed the film.

3 comments:

Camille Alexa said...

I just saw Wallee and thought it was great.

Steve Buchheit said...

I thought it was excellent as well. Although over the weekend I've met people who didn't like it. It takes all kinds.

Camille Alexa said...

I liked Hancock, too, which everybody else is totally dissing. I saw those two movies back to back. Kind of a weird combo, but good fun.

On the other hand, I had serious reservations about Iron Man, and I'm THE ONLY person with any objections there, as far as I can tell. The new Indiana J. movie was a waste of time, I'm sorry to say.