Film Round-Up: Hellboy, Playmobil: The Movie and Missing Link
I’m going to review some movies.
Hellboy
In this reboot of the classic Del Toro series, Hellboy takes on a ressurected witch. Other things also happen. This is just a mess. It’s not completely terrible, David Harbour is a good Hellboy and some of the action scenes are pretty cool, but other than that this movie has the same coherency as a Twin Peaks fanfic. Plot points are brought up then completely forgotten about, never to be seen again. The tone switches from comedic to really dark with the delicacy of a million hammers and the editing feels like it was done with a hacksaw and tape. The performances other than David Harbour are terrible as well. I think there’s something passable in here with another go in the editing room but the product presented is a dog’s dinner of a movie.
Playmobil: The Movie
Anya Taylor-Joy and her brother get sucked into the world of Playmobil, with the stressed young woman being forced into an adventure to rescue her kidnapped brother. Just like the actual product, this is a cut priced version of The LEGO Movie you only watch because you can’t afford the other. This one has bad songs, not bad ironically just plain bad, a generic story about having more adventures and it’s just bland to look at. The weird thing is how it’s not about Playmobil at all. The LEGO Movie was very LEGOey, the fact it was all LEGO was intrinsic to the plot and theme of the movie. The word Playmobil is never mentioned in this film. In fact other than using the designs of Playmobil, the movie doesn’t really do much with the original toy idea. You could very easily have the characters get sucked into a 2D cartoon, 3D animation or whatever and it be the same movie. So what’s the point of this other than a cheap cash grab?
Missing Link
A stop motion Hugh Jackman finds a Sasquatch and goes on a journey to take him to the Yetis in the Himalayas so he can be with his own kind. This is a charming movie, not least because of the seriously stunning stop motion animation used. Seriously, it is staggering to think of all the effort put into the movie just on that front. The unfortunate thing is while the animators were going to painstaking lengths to bring these fun characters to laugh, the script writers were bunking off and spending a little bit too much time in the pub. The script is so generic which is disappointing as Studio Laika are usually so creative in this department. I wasn’t a fan of Kubo and the Two Strings but it was incredibly original unlike this. It has the most basic story you can put in a kids film with themes you’ve seen in a tonne of other movies of this kind. It’s still likable and funny but a shame really.
