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.
No comments:
Post a Comment