WALL-E
I saw WALL-E yesterday. It’s a good movie that is well worth watching in the theater. I wish I hadn’t heard anything about it before I watched it, so I’m putting my thoughts below the fold.
<!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>
I liked WALL-E a lot, but I couldn’t help having my expectations raised too high. The praise was effusive and glowing reviews universal from critics and people who saw it during the first week. How do hear “This is Pixar’s best movie” and not expect too much?
It probably is Pixar’s best movie too. It’s their first movie with sweeping social commentary, and they picked a big target to attack: excessive consumerism. It’s a small miracle that they were able to weave their message into the story, including a few biting digs at people and corporations, without being preachy. What’s the last movie with a message that managed to do that?
Yet I was a little unsatisfied. I think it was the analytical, science fiction nerd in me. I’m happy to accept intergalactic space yachts and a planet’s environment utterly destroyed, but why would humans program a robot with a personality? Where did people get the money to buy things if none of them worked?
Science fiction has made my mind rigid in a way. It’s not that the Stark Trek universe is more plausible than WALL-E, but they threw out enough techno-babble to make it easier to accept. Data has a personality because he has a positron brain? Sounds good to me! But why does WALL-E has a personality? It seems unnecessary to his job.
What I need is a commentary cut for WALL-E, with the director whispering in my ear: “The ship is powered by converting ore and gases into energy. WALL-E was designed with the ability to learn so he could adapt to new environments. Food is created by…”
Yet that kind of detail is incompatible with social satire, which relies on generalizations and simplifications to make a point. That was the unresolvable tension in the movie for me. WALL-E is as believable and logically consistent as one could expect, but it wasn’t enough for the nerd in me. I think if I were to watch WALL-E again, and I will eventually, I’d enjoy the movie more because its conventions would be easier to accept.
jim said,
July 8, 2008 @ 2:57 pm
And why did they mix in live action for all the recorded video stuff?? Just so that they could use the hello dolly clips and not make them stand out too much?
I really agree with you. I think maybe the details we lacked would have muddled it a bit for kids maybe? The story was a little thin and there was a lack of development for most of the characters (everything moved fast…especially with the development of the “rag tag” group of robots). Of course, at the same time I’m glad we weren’t beaten over the head with them all becoming robofriends team or something.
The cockroach was great. All of the earth sequences were great. Also, the opening short made me laugh a bunch. Pixar really knows physical comedy.