Strange World review
Strange World is kind of a ho-hum fantastic voyage.
At one point, a main character remarks on the lack of a villain in the card game they’re playing saying that doesn’t make for a very good story.
Writer/co-director Qui Nguyen makes this self-aware line almost as if to get ahead of one of the film’s big problems. Yet it somehow feels worse in the sense that Nguyen realizes a major shortcoming of Strange World without doing anything about it.
Sure, the main “villain” in this animated analogy to preserving the environment might be humans, but it’s also a disappointing lack of creativity or originality.
Ethan Clade (Jaboukie Young-White) is trying to step out of the destiny his father, Searcher (Jake Gyllenhaal, Ambulance) mapped out for him to be a farmer. Ethan wants to establish his own path and identity. It’s not so much a thinly veiled allegory to Ethan’s sexual preference either.
Searcher had a rocky relationship with his father, the famed explorer Jaeger Cade (Dennis Quaid, American Underdog), who vanished 25 years ago. At least Searcher found some stability with his marriage to Meridian (Gabrielle Union, The Inspection).
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With the health of their planet in serious jeopardy, President Callisto (Lucy Liu) recruits Searcher to join an expedition to the core in hopes of finding a cure. And naturally, Ethan and Meridian end up on the quest as well traveling on this spaceship/submarine hybrid.
The group quickly finds the planet’s core to be a vastly different and dangerous environment than what they expected. Mysterious gelatinous creatures constantly attack throughout the journey.
Searcher reunites with his father while Ethan befriends a smaller slime creature that felt intended to sell stuffed animals more than being a key supporting character.
Jaeger and Searcher’s reunion remains rocky and Ethan finds himself caught in the middle. The heart of the story is how each successive generation just wants the freedom to live their life without the burden of expectation. This isn’t exactly a deep message, and it becomes frustrating when Searcher can’t relate to Ethan’s desire to be his own man.
That’s really the extent of the film’s conflict. The adventure never manages to feel that suspenseful and there’s rarely a sense of accomplishment or wonder. It all feels so matter-of-factly.
On the plus side, the human character designs are inviting. There’s a roundness to the noses and texture to the hair that makes them look like Muppets characters instead of the standard CGI creations. It’s too bad that same amount of thought and creativity wasn’t applied to the core inhabitants.
Colors are bright and dazzling with backdrops that would play out spectacularly well in a 3D viewing experience.
Strange World needed a certain spark that should be easy to foster with its journey to the center of the Earth vibe. Instead it’s a flat, largely dull film hardly worth discovering.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney
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