My Personal Review of "Up"
So. We went to see Up today. We had the cinema all to ourselves, and the theatre has got to be one of the last ones still showing it. Ticket prices were 12.25$. And before reading through my review, be sure to remember that I am a picky film student :P
So to be honest, after all the hype up about it, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I might be. I did enjoy some of the characters and it had some good moments, but overall it receives a score of 4 out of 10- and a "maybe would see it again, but wouldn't go out of my way to do so".
The story line teetered on the edge of the well trodden plot path of the many Disney films that have gone before. It seemed to go somewhere new, but then you'd realise that no, actually they are using such and such a plot device, and his hero is going to turn out to be the villain because one hasn't really been introduced yet and every story needs a villain. The story was mostly, and unfortunately, predictable.
I felt that they could have done a lot more with the story concept and the ideas for morals that they had. The whole first 20 minutes of the film were- I felt- wasted and could have held so much more power and clarity- and there were a lot of questions which were left unanswered. There wasn't a good sense of closure, and I left the theatre feeling a bit confused. I think a REALLY good movie is one that you understand first viewing- but want to see it again to see every little detail, there are no incredibly major plot points lost in subtlety and only clarified by second or third viewings. I also left the theatre feeling a bit sad/depressed, not uplifted (which I think was the intent?)
This brings me to my third point about it- and thats how depressing this film turned out to be! There are so many incredibly sad undertones- and I felt that the end of the movie wasn't 'happy' enough to balance out the incredible feelings of loss and sadness that ran through the rest of the film. The high points were always tainted by negative undertones- reality, as you might say. There is how Ellie loses the baby (or at least that she and Carl would never have children); the death or absence of a couple of characters (Ellie, Charles Muntz and Russell's dad) and the idea of loss- losing a dream or leaving behind memories. Perhaps these concepts would fly over the heads of many younger viewers, but I found that the message and morals of the story got lost in the feeling of sadness.
However. I DID enjoy parts of it. I LOVED the character of the dog, Dug- he was the most charismatic character, and the one I connected to the most (I found that I couldn't feel as much sympathy for the other characters). And there are some classic lines in there which I enjoyed- and I liked the multilayered referencing that is a trademark of Pixar's work.
The visuals were well done- though I think they would have seemed a lot better had we seen it in 3d.
So. Overall in one sentence- Up has a good concept, but I felt that it was such a broad idea, and could have explored just one area a bit better; it had a lot more potential that I felt wasn't explored to its full depth.
posted by Curious at
Monday, November 16, 2009
