Friday, May 28, 2021

Raya and the Last Dragon

RATING: B-

For a little over a decade, Disney animated features have generally been able to split into two camps. There's the ones starring a Disney Princess that, while they can certainly appeal to anybody and do, are generally marketed toward younger girls (regardless of whether that's actually an accurate reflection of the movie or not). Examples include Tangled and both Frozen movies. Then there's the more adventure-oriented ones, like Big Hero 6, Wreck-It Ralph, or Zootopia--features that could be mistaken for Pixar work, and where the opposite of the previously mentioned target audience trope may apply. 

Raya and the Last Dragon is the rare Disney feature (at least these days) that attempts to split the difference and market itself to both camps. It's more oriented in the realm of fantasy/adventure, but it also has a heroine for a protagonist--who's technically a princess, but that word is never really said out loud and she hasn't been included in the "Princess" marketing lineups. She's more of a warrior type anyway. The result of all this is basically what you'd get if you crossed Mulan and Avatar: The Last Airbender together. 

Raya and the Last Dragon has an interesting enough setting and backdrop. Basically, the people of this fantasy version of Asia used to live together alongside dragons (not the angry fire-breathing kind--in fact, these almost look more Luck Dragons from the Neverending Story, minus the dog ears). Unfortunately, the world is also under attack by a force called the Druun which turns people *and* dragons to stone. The last living dragon banished them with the help of a magic gem, but vanished and the rest of the dragons never returned. And now the world is divided in a power struggle for the gem--and eventually the Druun return (for semi-spoilerific reasons), forcing Raya to try and find the mythical "Last Dragon" in hopes of saving the world. 

It's less complicated than it might sound. In fact, this movie actually does a pretty good job of world-building in a relatively short amount of time. The problems don't lie in the movie's setting or plot, even if the latter is a tad derivative at times. Nor does it lie in the protagonist, who is an effectively likable character but also driven cynical and world-weary by the divisions. The problems lie elsewhere. 

Let's start with the movie's message, which is not very subtle. It's a very unity-based one, which leans heavily on the concept of trusting in order to get there. While this is not bad in of itself and even arguably quite timely, the problem is in the execution. The movie--and Sisu, the "Last Dragon"--tell us these things about trust often, but the movie also gives us plenty of reasons to do the opposite. By the time we get to the final act and the inevitable eventually occurs, it does not feel earned. 

Then there's the issue of the Druun. They're the real enemy here, but what are they? As we see them, they're basically giant dark purple clouds. The movie doesn't seem very interested in explaining properly what they are or their origins. Are they an evil force? Something created by mankind? Or are they just a literal metaphor? Sisu gives a brief monologue at some point, and the best we get is that they're "the opposite of dragons," which in this universe, are positively benevolent. While the effects of the Druun are effectively enough to set some tension, it's hard to "love to hate" a villainous force when it's basically just menacing clouds that you're not even really sure what they are. 

Finally, there's Sisu, the Last Dragon. For a mythical creature that's supposed to save everyone, she's a bit underwhelming--coming off as more goofy and awkward at times. This is done deliberately, but why? The movie can't decide whether to portray her as an awe-inspiring force of good, or simple comic relief--two things Disney normally doesn't have problems separating properly. This allows Sisu to play into the movie's quite anachronistic modern late-2010's banter, which is funny at times but also a little overdone. ("Bling is my thing," for example, is something that is actually said in this movie.) 

Despite these various issues, it's not like there's nothing to be enjoyed here. As mentioned earlier, the backdrop and story are interesting enough. There's also some exciting melee combat sequences, as well as some martial arts. The animation is also quite astounding, bringing the environments to life beautifully. The side characters that join Raya on her quest are memorable as well. The movie certainly isn't boring either. 

Raya and the Last Dragon is a flawed but ultimately still enjoyable feature from Disney. Nothing to necessarily write home about, but hardly a waste of time either. Whatever the issues, there's enough of a sense of adventure and fun here as well as enough likable characters that it still makes for an entertaining time. Just don't go into it expecting a classic. 

Friday, May 7, 2021

Greenland

 

RATING: B-

Disaster films do not exactly have a good rep these days. They started gaining notoriety for being mostly spectacle-filled, effects-heavy pieces with very little substance and often flat out terrible writing. Roland Emmerich didn't do much to help this case between The Day After Tomorrow and 2012, which are kind of poster cases for this issue. In particular since the latter film, the genre's popularity seems to have tanked. Such films can be mildly enjoyable sometimes, but there's almost always nothing to them beyond popcorn entertainment--and it's a grimmer sort. 

Greenland at least takes a different route than most of its peers--it is in fact less about the spectacle and more about the human element. While there are scenes of destruction, they don't take up the majority of the movie and they often happen so fast there's not much time for action. And we generally only see it from the main characters' perspectives--and unlike some of the other movies in this genre, the destruction doesn't follow them wherever they go, so a lot of what we see is limited to news reports. 

Greenland's big disaster event is a comet breaking up into chunks in the atmosphere which then turn into meteors--which cause enough devastation by themselves, but there's one on the way which will cause an extinction level event. Fortunately, the world governments are somewhat prepared (because of course they are)--and as a result, there is still a way out for part of the population. Cue Gerard Butler's character and his family trying to get to safety before civilization as we know it is quite literally wiped out. 

This is a rather grim movie--not just because of the disaster in it, but because it also makes a point of showing how humans would react in such times. In that respect, it actually is fairly realistic; while there are some number of good people doing the best they can, there's also a number of people who will do whatever they can to survive. In that sense, it's comparable to Steven Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds, although it arguably takes things even further. 

Perhaps the biggest problem with this approach of focusing more firmly on the disaster from the perspective of the protagonists is you have to have a good leading cast for that. Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning were parts of what helped War of the Worlds work in that regard. Gerard Butler, while not a bad actor, isn't able to do the same and carry the movie here. Morena Baccarin fares better as the wife of the main family, but aside from Roy from The Office and Scott Glenn (both in smaller roles, though Glenn fares pretty well), there's no one else you've probably heard of in this movie. And while the characters themselves do grow on you over time, they don't really grab you from the start. (It doesn't help matters that in this case the movie *does* make use of disaster cliches with its main characters--estranged parents, child with a health condition.) The film and its characters get better later, but there is also a bit of time-wasting in the first half involving a quite idiotic kidnapping. 

Besides the 2005 War of the Worlds comparisons, this could also be called a more competent version of 2012--also about an apocalyptic event, but with better writing, more realistic and less over-the-top, and less annoying characters (and less characters in general). Some aspects of this film--such as the occasionally bumpy first half and the abrupt ending--hold it back a little bit, but it's still a step above a lot of the films in this genre from the past two decades. 

Greenland isn't necessarily anything to write home about, but it's better than might be expected because of its showcasing of how humans would react with an incoming extinction level event. To a degree, the movie almost feels like it's more about that than the Garrity family that we spend most of the time with. The uglier side of that human nature seen here and the very nature of the unstoppable apocalyptic event on the way might make this movie rather too bleak and grim for some. But if you've watched some of the bigger disaster releases from recent years and wished they would be better, this one might pleasantly surprise you a little with its more consistently serious take on a movie disaster.