La mort d'une licorne

That could have been exploited more magically with awesome fantasy features. Instead it shows very good visual effects except the baby unicorn, mumbo jumbo human greed and getting high on unicorn calcific powder and rejuvenating extracts to narcissistic own use.

Jenna Ortega is averagely hard enough to watch with near zero youthful charisma, but when you have her as one of the executive producers the result is not bright.

The effects were good, the whole movie and cast weren't.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 6
• Production value/impact: 7
• Development: 7
• Realism: 7
• Entertainment: 6.5
• Acting: 6.5
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 7
• VFX: 8
• Music/score/sound: 6
• Depth: 5.5
• Logic: 5
• Flow: 7
• Dark comedy/fantasy/horror/thriler/drama: 6.5
• Ending: 2.

If this movie took itself seriously, I'd give it a low score. But it's so obviously dumb fun mixed with satire, I feel like a low score would miss the point.

If you like dark humor, jump scares, and a bit of gore, I'd recommend it to you. The characters are more caricatures. The satire is not subtle. The humor is low brow. And I say all of this as QUALITIES of the movie.

The level of writing is very much like that of 80s or 90s era sitcoms. The performances are fine - adequate. I left the theater understanding that I saw a "bad" movie by most standards. But I didn't regret spending money on the ticket. To me, it's one of those "so bad, it's good" kind of movies.

If I have the opportunity to see it again, maybe on a streaming service, I will.

The good- pretty cool lore and set up for the unicorns. Promising father-daughter set up, some good satire of the rich and powerful. Will Poulter is the best of the cast.

The bad- The father's character development felt very unearned, most of the movie I was praying for his bloody comeuppance. The rich family was too one-note for the amount of screen time they get. CGI was noticeably mediocre but understandable for a low budget movie.

With a rewrite or two, and some more money for CGI and action sequences, this could have been a sleeper surprise with genuine sequel potential as I really did like what they did with the unicorns. But because most all the characters were one-dimensional, the movie drags in the middle third as you wait for the inevitable. When it does finally happen, it's somewhat entertaining but let down by its poor CGI, so-so action sequences, and clunky plot resolution. The first two are forgivable given its budget, the third is not.

I don't regret watching this movie, I just wish that it had lived up to its potential.

This movie could work with the strange premise and shoddy CGI. But, it requires characters to be likeable or at least relatable. That's the big issue here. It plays hard into the fame of Jenna Ortega. She's supposed to be the maiden with a pure heart. But, she comes off mores like an angst teenager with a terrible haircut. Paul Rudd is decent enough, but you find yourself getting annoyed with him immediately.

The Rich Family: take your typical evil greedy rich family and that's all you get here. They're ready to make a buck. That's their entire drive. There were hints of depth that were destroyed by misplaced comedy. When the father is standing, the son's immediately reaction was great. Then they went hokey.

In the end, this is a forgettable movie. The premise should carry it better, but the characters ruin it. The CGI is bad. But, you can let it pass if the characters are relatable. This movie fails here.

Death of A Unicorn is theoretically a horror-comedy underpinned by thematic denunciations of greed and environmental exploitation. The horror is essentially non-existent, the comedy is trite and predictable, and the thematic moralizing is as deep as a puddle. This isn't overtly bad or insulting; but it is stale and flaccid. The movie's one saving grace, such as it is, is a likeable cast that includes Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter and Tea Leoni. They all seem to be trying hard to make something out of a script that didn't merit their talents, and their charisma makes you want to like the movie more than it deserves.