WondrousMoose

There's something nice about being able to pull up Netflix and stumble upon little films that I would have otherwise never heard of. This one in particular had caught my eye a while back, so I finally got around to watching it, and for the most part, I enjoyed what I saw. From the thumbnail and synopsis, I expected that the movie would have some nice visuals and a bland story; to my pleasant surprise, it did have both of those but also had a heaping ton of imagination and creativity.

Mune's strongest point has got to be the world it takes place in: this place is completely alien to our own and yet is entirely believable. The film features such a thorough world and mythology that I assumed it was based on an existing TV or book series, but it is in fact a completely original story. I won't go into detail on what all it is about, as discovering each little feature along the way is a wonderful experience.

The movie is originally in French, but Netflix's English dub is seamless, and this in no way feels like a foreign film. I'd also like to point out that the score was written by Bruno Coulais, who also scored Coraline and Song of the Sea.

Aside from the strengths I pointed out, though, Mune is fairly generic. The story beats and characters are what you'd expect for this sort of movie. Although I did enjoy Nicole Provost's spirited performance as Glim, the voice cast is for the most part nothing special. There's a mischievous guy who's unsure of himself, an arrogant dude who learns to help people, etc., and each character sounds the part without adding anything special.

With that said, I would like more movies in a future franchise to see how they expand on and dive into all that they've set up. If there aren't any sequels, though, I'll still be able to remember Mune as a happy little accident I had while browsing Netflix.

The Last Unicorn is an oddity. It's certainly a darker movie than others aimed at kids, though it is hardly dark enough to affect adults. It doesn't look bad but has hardly aged well, all things considered. It tells its story pretty effectively but is slow and frankly pretty boring.

In my opinion, the biggest flaws with the movie are results of the time in which it was made. The '60s, '70s, and early '80s are widely acknowledged as a lousy period for animation, and The Last Unicorn suffers from just about every cliche we've come to know from that time: flat visuals, jerky character movement, limited facial animations, awkward voice acting, bad music, and more.

The film's animation is pretty good for its time, but I can only say that in reference to the period in which it was made, rather than strictly its age; for example, 1959's Sleeping Beauty used a similar animation style to much better effect. I also do not feel that the soundtrack, performed by the rock band America, has aged well at all. The film grinds to a halt each time a new song starts, and none of them help move the story along. This film has no reason to be a musical, but it is one, despite the fact that the leads aren't very good singers when they join in.

Of course, it isn't all bad. While I do have issues with the animation overall, there are glimpses of something really interesting. The story book style of the visuals is distinctive, and the simple, single-minded drive of the lead is strangely engaging. I believe that The Last Unicorn would benefit from a remake. There is interesting material here; it just isn't being used to its full potential. Instead, the film stands as an example of a pretty good movie from a poor environment.

Viewers must have been shocked when Netflix made their Super Bowl announcement that the newest Cloverfield film was immediately available for streaming. This sort of flash marketing has had some great success in the past, and as audiences scrambled to their computers, well, I hope they enjoyed what they saw more than I did.

Somewhere in the future, the earth is on the brink of losing all major power sources. Humanity's only hope is the Shepard, a particle accelerator launched into space that can theoretically produce infinite energy. When a test run goes horribly wrong, the crew of the ship find themselves in a terrifying place between dimensions.

Perhaps the single biggest missed opportunity of The Cloverfield Paradox is the fact that it doesn't maintain tension throughout its run. When horrifying things happen, characters react in the moment and are then okay afterward, only talking a little bit louder and frowning more than before. The score is that of a generic action movie with disparate noises and Inception-style "BWOM"s thrown in for effect. The film cuts seemingly at random between the events on the space station and Earth, ruining any chance of maintaining a consistent atmosphere in either story. The film doesn't have much to work with, though, as it hardly has scary scenes at all; what it does have, though, is a wacky, dancing eyeball and wild, spinning foosball spooks!

This feels like a movie that doesn't want to be too much of one thing, so it refuses to be anything. Much of the film's look and feel are a bit too nice, with the perfectly groomed characters in their spotless uniforms running through shiny, well-lit sets. The few interesting moments that this film has are quickly lost as it has no identity of its own. David Oyelowo is markedly out of place in the film, with his realistic actions contrasting his boring cast members. I feel sorry him and am honestly impressed that he could deliver lines such as, "This dimension is eating us alive!" with a straight face.

This review isn't as long as most because I don't have much to say.

The Cloverfield Paradox is simply every horror movie in space done worse. It takes the trans-dimensional horror of Event Horizon, sprinkles in some Alien and Sunshine for good measure, and glosses over it all with some low-budget flair. This isn't a horror film; this is a line of bland scenes occasionally interrupted by gross things and loud noises. It isn't as spectacularly bad as many horror movies can be - it's just boring. I'd recommend not watching it, but if you do, know that you likely won't remember what you saw a week afterward.