2008 animated filmRating: 16/20 (Jen: 17/20; Dylan: 13/20; Emma 18/20; Abbey 20/20)
Plot: The title robot is a sex-starved janitor left on earth after all the people have disembarked. It's lucky that he's a trash collector because there's an excess of it and he really has nothing better to do with his time. Until a hot little robot with a dynamite figure and beautiful blue eyes shows up and rocks his world. Initially, she rejects his awkward sexual advances--at one point, Wall-E tries to offer Eva a Rubik's cube in exchange for sexual favors--but when he helps her find what she was looking for in the first place, she becomes interested and they engage in robot coitus. Then they go to space!
First forty-five minutes: brilliant, funny, touching, poignant. Last forty-five minutes: flawed, forced, overly ambitious, far too action-oriented. The characters, especially Wall-E, are definitely likable enough, and there are some very nice touches (a lot of the stuff Wall-E collects is funny) with more probably likely to reveal themselves during a second viewing. The music's fine, the visuals are often pretty staggering, and a lot of the messages behind the cute little kids' story work well without being at all forced. Some things did annoy me during that second half. The humor doesn't work as well, and the movie seems to lose it's focus and voice. That first half though is about as good as it gets, probably the best 40 minutes Pixar's put together. I was really wavering between 15 and 16 on this one, but given that I'll probably end up liking this better when I see it again. And I also like the social commentary and the homage to Buster Keaton. And watching my kids enjoy it always helps, too. So, 16 it is.
Question: Did they not let black people on the big spaceship? What's with that?
Ashley LOVES this movie and I think she would watch it eight times a day if I let her. Your review was right on the money. The entire first half before they go into space is almost flawless. Nerd chases hot chick that is out of his league has rarely been done better. My only gripe might be how many times I had to hear "Wall-E" and "Ev-va".
ReplyDeleteThe second half raised many, many logic questions that interfered with my enjoyment of the movie's unquestionable brilliance and brought it down to a lower-tier Pixar level. I saw somewhere that they purposely shaped his lenses so that he looked like Buster Keaton. Is that part of the homage you're talking about? I was also curious about the lack of brothers or those of any other race. Maybe that's what helped everyone get so fat. 'Wall-E' has a hundred moments of genius but when I look back on it something just feels a little off. I also gave it a 16.