mckenzie_kyle-12260

Moana is a traditional Disney animated film. It has everything you'd expect from the studio that has become synonymous with beautiful animation design, generic heroic tales and silly animal sidekicks.

It seems at this point, each new Disney animated film is a new skin for the same story. But I cannot bring myself to dislike it. The movie is just so fun that it's impossible to critique the generic storyline and forced plot points. There is literally a wave of water that stops anything interesting or unexpected from happening within the diegesis which is a cool way of saying "don't expect any surprises".

The thing about Moana is, that despite the barebones story, it's surface is incredibly detailed. It made me immersed in the culture of the island and interested in what life in this society would be like. The little details like drawings and patterns in background shots, to parts of songs being sung in a different language were necessary to making the film distinguishable from something that took less effort to make. This careful planning and attention to detail is something that Disney tend to find success in.

The film is also beautiful. The visuals are stunning. The animators did a fantastic job. The score is so fun, though the way music was handled within the film I felt was a little odd. The pacing seemed strange, with many songs appearing in the first act, and then long periods of time between musical interludes in the second and third. Being one of the most appealing parts of the film, I was saddened by this, however, it did make the opening half hour of the film one of the more enjoyable I have seen in recent memory.

All in all, Moana is a very fun movie. I can see how adults and kids alike could find enjoyment in it. The voice acting all seemed spot on, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well Dwayne Johnson can sing. Boy, that man really can just do it all can't he. I thoroughly enjoyed Moana, but it is held back in my 7/10 rating due to a slight fatigue in the Disney animated storytelling. I'd like to think that it would get a higher rating from me if I was to focus on it individually and forget the other similar Disney films I have seen; but I'm afraid I cannot. It was a very fun movie, but nothing to tell the grandkids about.

This movie was just the worst.

The target audience is definitely 14 year old "edge lords". I shudder to think of anyone who actually appreciates the so called comedy in this film. There are very few actual jokes, and mostly just inappropriate and crass lines of dialogue that feel very, very forced.

The movie relies on the exploitation of racial, religious, cultural and sexual stereotypes that are harmful to their respective communities. There are ways to satirise and poke fun of certain groups that can be done in an amusing and intelligent way... this is not one of them.

The reference to drug use just seems painfully shoved in, and unnecessary. In fact, this whole film is unnecessary. I was waiting for something remotely funny or amusing to happen and I sat through an hour and a half of pure profanity and mindless sludge until the credits started rolling.

Visually I guess the film is impressive- but the character models seem odd and unnatural. I can't fault the animators for this though, given they have to make literal cans of soup into characters. This film should have been stopped as a bad idea on paper long before it proceeded to also be badly executed.

In conclusion, I hate myself now. This movie has made me hate myself. I can often laugh at Seth Rogen's comedies; Superbad is a very good film, This Is The End had it's moments and even The Interview had one or two moments that made me smile. This film offers nothing. It tries way too hard to be edgy, and comes across as pathetic for trying so hard. A hard pass.

This movie is just bad.

Can't say I was expecting much, admittedly. The cringeworthy trailers and bad press it has been receiving led me to believe that it would be a less than exhilierating cinematic experience, but I figured I would give the movie a go nevertheless.

My first complaint would be that the idea has been done to death. The whole 'Groundhog Day' routine has become stale. This movie doesn't present enough of an interesting plot line or characters to warrant me sitting through the same scenario multiple times.

Without risking spoilers I would like to just warn everyone not to get their hopes up about the "reveal". It is painfully delivered and possibly one of the weakest excuses for a plot twist I have ever seen.

When evaluating this as a part of the horror genre... well... it doesn't belong to the genre even remotely. Any violence or gore is shyed away from each time the protagonist is killed because it instantly cuts to her waking up. I'm not saying blood and guts are necessary to a horror film (see It Follows) but I was at no point in this movie even remotely spooked in the slightest.

In terms of redeeming qualities, I felt that the acting was adequate, given the poor script the actors were left to deal with. There were some details that I enjoyed about the film, for example the admittedly witty sticker on the door of the room the protagonist finds herself waking up in repeatedly. But aside from these minor things, this movie really doesn't deliver in any way. Poor.