Elemental: A Lot of Flash for Such a Basic Premise

 

Beloved and I took SweetCheeks to the movies last weekend and saw Pixar's latest, Elemental.

As with all things Pixar, there were times when the film was visually stunning, but the studio's commitment to the primacy of storytelling seems to have wilted, if not died altogether.

I can't count the number of movies and television shows where the main conflict was a child that didn't want to follow in its parent's footsteps.

And make no doubt about it, underneath the clever personifications of earth, wind, water, and fire, the backbone of this movie is a child that doesn't want to take over the family business but also doesn't want to break her father's heart. Originality rating: 1 star.

Don't misunderstand, I DID enjoy Elemental for its cleverness and eye-popping action, but ...emotionally, it mostly fell flat. (SPOILER ALERT: Does anybody actually think the main character's love interest is going to stay dead?)

Another disappointment was the forget-all-laws-of-physics "resolution" to a bit of tension that ran all the way through the movie: How can a fire-person be romantic with a water-person? (SPOILER ALERT: The movie-makers' solution was to just let them go ahead and touch and pretend that fire and water can coexist.)

ALL THAT SAID...I suppose one shouldn't expect an animated movie like this to make a whole lot of sense or be logically consistent. So sure...get a bucket of popcorn and enjoy the ride.

Books I Read in 2023, Vol. VIII

 

THE LAST SECOND: A Brit in the FBI Thriller
Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison

Galactus, France's answer to SpaceX, has just launched a communications satellite into orbit, but the payload actually harbors a frightening weapon: a nuclear bomb that can trigger a massive electromagnetic pulse....The countdown has begun when special agents Drummond and Caine are thrown into the pending disaster. They must stop the EMP that would wreak havoc on communication and electronic systems on Earth, resulting in chaos and anarchy. (Back-of-book blurb)
Aliens communicating from outer space and a search for the Holy Grail seem the stuff of science fiction, but in the capable hands of Coulter and Ellison, they become an Indiana Jones-style, high-concept adventure thriller about a race to save the world. (Booklist review)

I picked this up from a Little Free Library at Culver's and decided to take it with me for the hours and hours of flight time to and from Hawaii. Turns out I spent most of my time in the air watching movies and ended up reading the book while sitting on our balcony watching the waves. I was taking a chance; I didn't have any prior knowledge of the book or the authors. But it paid off. Well-described action, surprisingly clean language for the genre, and a climax made inevitable by the title. I guess I need to add the Brit in the FBI series to the list of Longmire novels in my to-be-borrowed list with the library. (This book is the 6th and final (so far) in the series.)

First Line: There was a large mirror on the wall of the white room.

Page 56 / Line 5: Devi will be in touch, and we must be ready to leave the minute she does.

Last Line: Stay tuned for more from Sky News on this busy news day.