Despite the incredible advances in computer animation films like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Polar Express and this one have one huge problem:

Every one has cold dead eyes.

Actually, this film takes it one step further and has the piece cast with completely soulless characters. Robert Zemeckis had a similar issue with Polar Express, he seems to concentrate so strongly on the animation and making sure the movie is visually dazzling that the story goes flat. Even though this is based on the classic poem, this adaptation is missing any depth, tension or purpose. It is a series of scenes that are as inorganic as the characters that populate them. At the least this film should have been a visual treat, but it fails on that front as well. The animation is stiff, really failing when confronted with replicating any physics. Every time someone jumps or moves too quickly they get clunky. This stilted movement distracts from the action.

This may seem like a good idea, but the execution is a failure. This film shows that some great works simply are not capable of being adapted.


Related Reviews:
Beowulf and Grendel (2005)


Other Critic's Reviews:
Film School Rejects
The Japan Times

Labels: adaptation, Angelina Jolie, film, movie review