Movie Review - Moana
I don't think this movie deserves an 8.5 on IMDB. I am not saying it is not good. But I am fairly certain that it is not THAT good. Read on to find out why...
The "good" aspects first - The characters are good. Archetypes, but good. They are likeable (especially The Rock as Mauri) and funny as hell. The voice acting was solid and the dialogue delivery never felt bland. Now, the best thing in this movie, by far, are the visuals. They are absolutely photo-realistic. Even the character models don't actually look like cartoons. They almost look like real people. The animation is guilty (in a good way) of making you feel you are watching an animated movie. The CGI is really, really good. It is only unfortunate that there is no interesting plot to exhibit these wonderful creations more vividly.
Now onto the "bad" aspects - like I said, the plot. The way I see it, there are two plots to this movie, and stop me if you have heard this one before; plot number one - A Princess is born to the high chief of a village who is near and dear to everybody. Said Princess loves to enjoy life, dream about things she wants to do, and is loved by everybody in the village. She wants to venture out far into the sea, and explore nature... but nope, the caring yet burly father prevents her from doing so since the sea beyond the reef is cursed and bad things happen to people who cross it. Well, one day she does. Sounds familiar? Yes people, plot number one as you can see, is EVERY OTHER DISNEY PRINCESS MOVIE!
...and that brings us to plot number two - against her father's wishes, she goes on an adventure in which she has to restore balance to nature (the mission) by finding the Demigod named Mauri (the sidekick aka Player 2) and coercing him into placing the heart of Mother Nature (or something like that) into well, wherever it was stolen from by him in the first place. For that, she first needs to help him get his 'Fish Hook' (weapon upgrade), defeat a few monsters (a mini-boss and a final boss) along the way and get the job done. Yes people, plot number 2 as you can see, is EVERY OTHER FANTASY VIDEOGAME PLOT!
Now onto the "bad" aspects - like I said, the plot. The way I see it, there are two plots to this movie, and stop me if you have heard this one before; plot number one - A Princess is born to the high chief of a village who is near and dear to everybody. Said Princess loves to enjoy life, dream about things she wants to do, and is loved by everybody in the village. She wants to venture out far into the sea, and explore nature... but nope, the caring yet burly father prevents her from doing so since the sea beyond the reef is cursed and bad things happen to people who cross it. Well, one day she does. Sounds familiar? Yes people, plot number one as you can see, is EVERY OTHER DISNEY PRINCESS MOVIE!
...and that brings us to plot number two - against her father's wishes, she goes on an adventure in which she has to restore balance to nature (the mission) by finding the Demigod named Mauri (the sidekick aka Player 2) and coercing him into placing the heart of Mother Nature (or something like that) into well, wherever it was stolen from by him in the first place. For that, she first needs to help him get his 'Fish Hook' (weapon upgrade), defeat a few monsters (a mini-boss and a final boss) along the way and get the job done. Yes people, plot number 2 as you can see, is EVERY OTHER FANTASY VIDEOGAME PLOT!
I am not a Disney fan and never will be, but I've seen enough Disney movies to say without a doubt that I have seen this story done a million times before. The plot just turns out to be nothing but a blank canvas on which the picture is painted and sadly, it is not given much thought. And for me, the plot is of utmost importance in any movie.
Another gripe I have with this movie are the songs. I swear, a song plays every 15 minutes. Happy? song. Sad? song. Angry? song. Fart? song. And the songs, at least in my opinion, are not memorable and turn out to be annoying and affect the pacing. I know that this is a tradition in Disney movies and I should get used to them but maybe that is just me.
Then we have the ending. I don't think I will be spoiling anything by giving it away but, it definitely feels anti-climactic. The movie builds up to a big battle. You will be expecting a kick-ass boss battle, the grand finale, a mano-y-mano of sorts by the end of this movie and what do you get? The destructive power of... love and peace *sigh* Again, EVERY DISNEY MOVIE EVAR!!!
Disney movies are like iPhones. Same thing every season. Yet, it is easily marketable as a family-friendly product. And people actually buy it despite knowing that it is nothing new. This was the reason I skipped out on Zootopia in theaters, only to find that it was actually damn good and has become my favorite Disney movie of all time. I know I say this a lot in my reviews but Moana is only decent.
Score - 7/10
Another gripe I have with this movie are the songs. I swear, a song plays every 15 minutes. Happy? song. Sad? song. Angry? song. Fart? song. And the songs, at least in my opinion, are not memorable and turn out to be annoying and affect the pacing. I know that this is a tradition in Disney movies and I should get used to them but maybe that is just me.
Then we have the ending. I don't think I will be spoiling anything by giving it away but, it definitely feels anti-climactic. The movie builds up to a big battle. You will be expecting a kick-ass boss battle, the grand finale, a mano-y-mano of sorts by the end of this movie and what do you get? The destructive power of... love and peace *sigh* Again, EVERY DISNEY MOVIE EVAR!!!
Disney movies are like iPhones. Same thing every season. Yet, it is easily marketable as a family-friendly product. And people actually buy it despite knowing that it is nothing new. This was the reason I skipped out on Zootopia in theaters, only to find that it was actually damn good and has become my favorite Disney movie of all time. I know I say this a lot in my reviews but Moana is only decent.
Score - 7/10
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