Wall-E

I finally watched Wall-E. Better late than never, eh?

A lot of critics are hailing Wall-E as the best picture of the year.  Some have gone so far as to insinuate that it deserves a nod for Best Picture at the Oscars despite it’s CG goodness.

So what do I think?  Frankly, I think that’s all a bunch of crazy talk.

While an entertaining movie of Pixar quality, Wall-E is not nearly as spectacular as some seem to think.  I don’t know that I’d even call it the best Pixar movie, much less worthy of an Oscar.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie.  As is par for the course for Pixar, they bring to life a rich world of characters, the most important of which can’t even talk (except to say Wall-E, Eve, and Directive).

It’s really this intriguing point that makes the movie work as a whole.  This is a character study of two characters who have to connect to the audience with only actions.

It’s an impressive feat.  You really get into Wall-E’s head.  You understand his feelings and his goals.  You’re never left wandering what’s going on.

My favorite character is actually Eve, a robotic probe sent to earth to ascertain whether there are any remnants of life on the planet.  She’s sleek and sexy; the imagined result of Apple designing a Transformer.

About halfway through the movie I had the realization that I had feelings akin to a crush on Eve.  It’s a true testament to just how skillfully Pixar was able to humanize these futuristic, mechanical characters.

Wall-E also has a message.  Set in the distant future where mankind has made Earth inhospitable,  the movie is a reminder of our own tendency to be trapped in consumerism to the detriment of all things around us.

The humans portrayed in Wall-E are slovenly, disgusting creatures who sit in chairs their entire lives with infinite amounts of stimuli and food.  Perhaps it was an attempt to have us look in the mirror as a society, but it’s uncomfortable and unpleasant.

I don’t go to the movie for a lecture or to be made to feel guilty; not to mention there is some irony in lecturing us on this topic after taking our money to watch the show.

It harps on consumerism as the root of all evil, while slyly relying on it to exist in the first place.  The end result is a bit too hipocritical for my taste.

If I sound down on the movie it’s only because the expectations for it were set so high.  With the buzz of ‘best movie of the year’ surrounding it, there was really nowhere to go but down.

It was a better movie than most, but this is Pixar and they’ve set a higher standard than your average action movie.  Although I like Wall-E, and almost fell in love with Eve, the over-wrought plot was just a little too much to stomach.

Verdict: B+ Tilt: C