Movie Review - The Wild Robot

We took some time to go see The Wild Robot today, which I realized part way through was based on some popular kids books by the same name. I haven't read the book, so I went in without any preconceived notion of what the it would be. But from what I hear, the movie is sort of a combination of the multiple books with a lot of creative license.

I thought the story was good and it was pretty fun to watch in the theater. There wasn't a lot of comedy, or laugh out loud scenes, but I think all of the kids enjoyed it (even our teenager who didn't want to go). I really liked the themes about sacrifice and family. 

What I came away most impressed about though, was the artwork. I was blown away by the quality of the artwork and really liked the style of it throughout the movie (The storm clouds and sky were always really cool). I tried to find some example screen grabs posted online, but couldn't find much. Some of the scenes that I remember thinking were just beautiful. A few of them that I remember off the top of my head were: a scene with a huge moon and lots of pine/fir trees, the scenes where the forest was burning (flames were a vibrant bright pink against the plants in the forest), the scenes of the owl and birds flying through the sky, and a scene which showed some whales swimming underwater near the golden gate bridge which was just amazing!

I would recommend seeing this movie in a theater with your kids. They will love the movie and you'll get to enjoy the details of the artwork. Definitely worth the price of a matinee ticket (discount from normal price) on a Saturday morning. Especially if you use the tickets as an incentive to get the kids' chores done in the morning!

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Okay, so I was able to see the new Indiana Jones movie this week and I thought I would write a review on it. I'll try not to spoil any of the plot for those of you who haven't seen it. No guarantees though, so read at your own risk. Don't get mad if I let something slip.

First of all, I would like to say that I really enjoyed the movie. It is chalk full of classic Indiana Jones scenes and one liners. Of course Harrison Ford is older in the movie, but there is still a good selection of fight/action scenes. The movie also tied into some of the past movies very simply and it was fun to find little parts in the screenplay that were taken from one of the previous three movies or to see an object or character from an old movie. Again Jones is pitted against one of the world's most feared armies, this time it's the KGB or Russian Army.

Of all the movies, as you would expect, this one implemented the most computer animated effects. I found this both enhancing and distracting. I felt like the explosions, special effects, etc. were all very good using the computer animation, but I also thought they went a little bit overboard with it animating badgers, monkeys, and even some stunts which looked fake and distracted from or had no purpose in the story. The ants is one exception though. I thought that the ant scene was great, aside from the one that got squished...

The Crystal Skull also seemed to have many scenes which were a bit too unrealistic. I know that it's Indiana Jones and he does unrealistic things in all of his movies, but usually there aren't so many things in one movie. I'm sorry, but I don't think that even Indiana could survive a nuclear bomb explosion by crawling into a refrigerator...Although I had expected him to maneuver out of a few sticky situations (which he did) I didn't expect him to have to escape this many times while each time it seemed to get stickier.

Finally, of all the ancient artifacts that Indiana Jones has found, this movie has to be the weirdest. Every previous movie finds Jones seeking after some relic with supposed and real supernatural powers. The ark, grail, and stones were great and all seem a lot less supernatural after watching this movie. The story for the movie was way out there. I immensely enjoyed the searching for the treasure and the good guy bad guy story. I didn't enjoy how the story ended. The ending is just weird. I can't think of any other way to explain it. Again the computer graphics add to the oddity of the final scenes. I wish that they could have figured out something else that the skulls could have done. I was glad to see the bad lady get her eyeballs burned out (eerily similar to the man turning old in The Last Crusade and the man melting in Raiders of the Lost Ark) but aside from that, it was just weird. Those of you who have seen it can identify with me, right?

So, in summary, I recommend the movie for any Indiana Jones fans. Like I said before, I enjoyed the movie and wouldn't be disappointed if I spent money to see it (even 8 bones for a normal theater). And while I felt that the ending was weird, it was a classic Indiana Jones story with good action sequences and great acting. Very funny. Very entertaining. But weird.
Did I mention that Shia LaBeouf was great in the movie?,...well he was.