Contour At The Movies

Overall Impression – Not a bad movie, but one with a very muddled central question.  And a few more comedy punch-up writers wouldn’t have hurt, either.   

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Who is your main character? – Susan

What is she trying to accomplish? – Professional: First half of the film she wants to get out of the government’s monster prison and be normal.  Second half it’s to destroy the aliens. Personal: Have her normal life back, although this gets a bit lost midway through. Private: Prove to herself how strong she is (although we only learn about this halfway through the movie).  Add up all of these and you have a confused central question as a result of her goal being a bit of a moving target.

Who’s trying to stop her? – Ultimately, the alien leader.

What happens if she fails? – Earth will be invaded by aliens and humans will be destroyed.

THE FOUR ARCHETYPES

Orphan – Susan is bonked by a meteorite at the start of the film, taken from her family after she becomes the 50 Foot Woman, and thrown into a cell in a government facility.

Wanderer – After an alien probe lands and goes on a rampage, Susan and the other monsters have to figure out how to use their monster skills to defeat it.

Warrior – Susan is kidnapped by the alien leader and fights him in his ship.  Meanwhile, the other monsters stage a rescue.

Martyr – Susan has returned to normal size and can escape the self-destructing ship, however she allows herself to become ginormous again to save her monster friends, who are also willing to martyr themselves for her.

AND, IN THE END…

MONSTERS VS ALIENS came this close to being a really good movie.  The 3D was a lot of fun and it’s interesting to watch as the technology gets embraced.  I can’t wait until the “adult” 3D movies start coming out.  

There was nothing horribly wrong with the movie that a quick once over in Contour couldn’t have fixed.   Allies are introduced in the wrong place, the central question was poorly defined, the third act solution was presented haphazardly (cars used as skates…watch for it).  This was one of those movies that just need a little bit more to be great; a little better plotting, a little punchier humor, a little bit more character work.

It’s done great business and deservedly so, but it was a little frustrating to watch because every last shortcoming was so fixable!  That being said, it’s easy to armchair quarterback a movie that one didn’t have to live with for several years in development.  

– Jeffrey Alan Schechter

Overall Impression – Why I wasn’t more impressed with this when I first saw it, I don’t know.  But now, having seen it again on Blu-ray…WOW!

THE FOUR QUESTIONS

Who is your main character? – WALL-E

What is he trying to accomplish? – Professional: Clean up earth so that people can repopulate it. Personal: Rescue EVE. Private: Get  EVE to love him.

Who’s trying to stop him? – AUTO, the auto-pilot on the space cruiser.

What happens if he fails? – Earth doesn’t get repopulated, Eve is destroyed, the humans lead useless lives, and he never finds love.

THE FOUR ARCHETYPES

Orphan – WALL-E is all alone on earth, 700 years after everyone has left.  It appears that the only creature left beside him is a single cockroach.

Wanderer – After EVE arrives, WALL-E tries to figure out how to win her trust.  They bond, but almost immediately she goes into sleep mode after she discovers the single plant WALL-E has found.  He tries to wake her up, stays by her side, and eventually tags along with the space probe that recovers her.

Warrior – WALL-E now fights to stay with EVE and wake her up.  When she reboots after the plant is recovered from her storage compartment, WALL-E and EVE fight to keep each other safe and to thwart the plans of AUTO who seems intent on keeping the ship from returning home.

Martyr – WALL-E literally destroys himself trying to keep a chamber open that will accept the plant and start the journey back to earth.  And this is only one of the martyr moments.  Eve is willing to give up her directive to save WALL-E, the ship’s Captain gives up his life of being pampered like a baby to do the right thing, even the secondary robot character sacrifice in order to get the ship back to Earth.

AND, IN THE END…

I remember sitting in the theater watching TOY STORY when it came out and hoping that it would never end.  It was, and still is, the perfect story.  Expectations on subsequent Pixar movies thus ran very high.  Sometimes they were met (FINDING NEMO, THE INCREDIBLES) and sometimes they weren’t (CARS, BUG’S LIFE).  But even when I was disappointed, it was only relative to how high Mr. Lasseter and crew set the bar.

WALL-E was heralded as some amazing, transcendent movie.  Something for adults much more than for kids.  I remember seeing it with my kids who were mildly bored throughout large parts of the movie.  Between their fidgeting and my high expectations, poor WALL-E never stood a chance.  And then I saw it again a few days ago.

It’s a brilliant movie on a number of levels, but the one to focus on is the opposition to WALL-E’s goals.   If his goal is to get EVE to love him, the lesser way to challenge him would be for there to be another robot, all shiny and glittery, trying to woo her.  There isn’t.

If his goal is to get the people back to earth, the lesser way would be for there to be some mission or directive that needs the people OFF of earth, such as the creating the conceit that the robots running the ship need the humans to generate energy to power themselves as in THE MATRIX.  There isn’t.

There are no stock villains or stock villainy.  The opposition to WALL-E’s desire line isnot only reasonable but intense.  An important principle is that the antagonist is the hero of his or her own story.  In WALL-E there are no bad guys, only various beings — human and robot — doing what they believe they need to do, all anchored by one little robot named WALL-E doing what he needs to do.  Love someone and be loved in return.

– Jeffrey Alan Schechter