Post by Deleted on Apr 15, 2021 23:48:59 GMT
A Ghost’s Review of a Soul movie...
I’m a huge Pixar fan, and I love Peter Doctor’s previous movies, especially Inside Out. This movie wants to be Inside Out but it fails in every way.
It’s ending is painfully predictable from the first scene. Joe is a middle aged music teacher who hates his job and wants to be a professional musician. Hmm. Not hard to guess immediately that he will learn to appreciate life by the end of the film, giving up his dreams. But the movie doesn’t even have the competence to go with the satisfying obvious ending where Joe realizes his true calling is to be a music teacher, not a music star. No, it ends with him realizing that life has no point at all and doing what you love means nothing. Chasing fame and glory is a poisonous dream, but this dude just wants to play piano, something he is really good at, and the movie never stops trying to convince us he is wasting his life.
The idea of a man giving up on his dreams and accepting to be what he actually is can be bold and mature, but this movie muddles that up completely. The otherwise mediocre Monsters U actually does a decent job with that arc. Here it somehow becomes necessary to demonize creative passion in order to make the story work. The message wants to be “Don’t miss out on life by obsessing over lofty goals.”, but instead becomes “Don’t do what you love because it’ll be a waste of time. Just make sure you enjoy pizza instead.” Not only does the story fail to explain why Joe is misguided in his dream, it replaces his life goal with nothing at all. Did he not enjoy the little things before? The movie never showed us that. If anything it showed us the opposite. He was literally doing what he loved and was passionate about already! How is that a wasted life?
Then there’s the overly simplistic, inanely cliche depiction of afterlife that revels in its own pretentiousness without ever realizing how bland and nonsensical it is. I can put aside the disregard for genetics and upbringing but the concept of pre-life training to prepare souls with an educational experience they won’t remember is silly. They even jokingly demonstrate that this “life training” center doesn’t give a rat’s ass that they are deliberately sending loads of narcissistic sociopaths to Earth. So why should any of this even matter?
And somehow getting horribly injured and dying can be easily reversed if you can just get your soul back. How is he not injured AT ALL once he returns?! Dude fell down a drain and literally died for fuck sake!
Overall, one of Pixar’s worst in recent years despite a great cast and an interesting score.
I’m a huge Pixar fan, and I love Peter Doctor’s previous movies, especially Inside Out. This movie wants to be Inside Out but it fails in every way.
It’s ending is painfully predictable from the first scene. Joe is a middle aged music teacher who hates his job and wants to be a professional musician. Hmm. Not hard to guess immediately that he will learn to appreciate life by the end of the film, giving up his dreams. But the movie doesn’t even have the competence to go with the satisfying obvious ending where Joe realizes his true calling is to be a music teacher, not a music star. No, it ends with him realizing that life has no point at all and doing what you love means nothing. Chasing fame and glory is a poisonous dream, but this dude just wants to play piano, something he is really good at, and the movie never stops trying to convince us he is wasting his life.
The idea of a man giving up on his dreams and accepting to be what he actually is can be bold and mature, but this movie muddles that up completely. The otherwise mediocre Monsters U actually does a decent job with that arc. Here it somehow becomes necessary to demonize creative passion in order to make the story work. The message wants to be “Don’t miss out on life by obsessing over lofty goals.”, but instead becomes “Don’t do what you love because it’ll be a waste of time. Just make sure you enjoy pizza instead.” Not only does the story fail to explain why Joe is misguided in his dream, it replaces his life goal with nothing at all. Did he not enjoy the little things before? The movie never showed us that. If anything it showed us the opposite. He was literally doing what he loved and was passionate about already! How is that a wasted life?
Then there’s the overly simplistic, inanely cliche depiction of afterlife that revels in its own pretentiousness without ever realizing how bland and nonsensical it is. I can put aside the disregard for genetics and upbringing but the concept of pre-life training to prepare souls with an educational experience they won’t remember is silly. They even jokingly demonstrate that this “life training” center doesn’t give a rat’s ass that they are deliberately sending loads of narcissistic sociopaths to Earth. So why should any of this even matter?
And somehow getting horribly injured and dying can be easily reversed if you can just get your soul back. How is he not injured AT ALL once he returns?! Dude fell down a drain and literally died for fuck sake!
Overall, one of Pixar’s worst in recent years despite a great cast and an interesting score.
