Brief Story Line
Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal - Ambulance, Zodiac etc) was the son of famous explorer Jaeger Clade (Dennis Quaid - A Dog's Journey, The Alamo etc) but did not want follow in his footsteps. Instead he preferred to be a farmer living with his wife Meredith (Gabrielle Union - Cheaper by the Dozen, Cradle 2 the Grave etc) and he wanted his son Ethan (Jaboukie Young-White) to be a farmer as well.
When the plants called Pando which was the source of energy in Avalonia started dying, their president Callisto (Lucy Liu - Elementary TV series, Shanghai Noon etc) found out it was related to the root of Pando located deep in a sinkhole. So Callisto enlisted the Clades to help in finding the cause of the problem to save Avalonia from the loss of energy.
So now they have to embark on an adventure that would test their resilience and relationship. And how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
When I watched this movie, I could not help to feel it had similarities with the famous Journey to the Center of the Earth because of the unknown world that was deep in their world. We could see so many unfamiliar, weird and strange animals where some were dangerous and others were friendly. And apparently after reading more on the movie, it was indeed inspired by that film and King Kong (which after some thought I realized there were familiarities with it too).
The first few minutes of the movie was pretty exciting with strong adventure feels and looking at the fonts of the title and credits, reminded me of Indiana Jones movies though it was not mentioned as what inspired them. Funny thing I felt in here was the movie makers seemed to try very hard to accommodate as many representation as possible in the characters. Anyway they were generally OK, with the relationship between the 3 generations of Clades as the nice part, although personally to me that blue thing called Splat and the 3 legged dog Legend were the ones who brought fun in this movie.
The animation was truly the highlight of this movie. Just like in other Disney animated movies, this one was very well done with realistic movements and even the creatures were amazing despite their weirdness. They also combined some 2D animations about the Clades nicely in here. But the part that truly amazed me was the musical score. I could feel the thrilling sensation during the exciting moments or when there were some suspenseful scenes where they were brilliantly composed. It was certainly not surprising as the composer was Henry Jackman who had vast experience in movies like Wreck It-Ralph, Puss in Boots, Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and many more.
The voice cast did their job adequately and they were quite convincing in their characterization, particularly Dennis Quaid. Aside from those lead cast, there were also Karan Soni (Office Uprising etc) as one of the crew Caspian, Alan Tudyk (DC Doom Patrol TV series etc) as the pilot Duffle and few others in minor roles. The movie was directed by Don Hall in his solo directorial debut with screenplay by Qui Nguyen (Raya and the Last Dragon). Hall's prior experience including co-directing Winnie the Pooh, Big Hero 6 and few others.
Overall this was a good enough adventure movie with some great animations. It was pretty exciting and the great musical score was a great addition to it. I might not have the best of time watching this as the story was quite predictable and the characters were not the most engaging ones, but I was still quite entertained by it. The news was not looking good for the movie as it performed below expectations in term of box office despite its positive critics review. Anyway if you are into some adventure movie ala Disney with some great animations while journeying into a strange world, then you can give this film a try as it is now available in Disney+.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment