Movie Review: Elemental

Movie Review: Elemental                                                                                                              6-16-23

Elemental takes place in a world inhabited by four different races: The botanical Earth residents, the hot-headed Fire residents, the cloudy Air residents, and the aquatic Water residents. Ember is a Fire resident who helps run her father’s convenience store, but when the pipes in the basement start leaking, Ember has to team up with the over-emotional Water inspector Wade to find a way to save her dad’s shop, as well as learn about how much they have in common.

Elemental is a return to the traditional Pixar formula with a story with amazing world building, animation that pushes computer technology to new limits, fun and engaging characters, top-notch voice acting, and a score from Thomas Newman that sits comfortably on the same shelves as Finding Nemo and WALL-E.

Wade being bent out of shape after popping out of a pipe.

There’s also a good message on how you should follow your dreams, even if they’re different from those you love.

Wade after trying Ember's family's spicy food.

For the first time in years, I can’t think of a major flaw from Elemental. However, this may be because this is my first viewing, and I’ll let you know if my opinion changed by September, when I review the Netflix film Nimona.

In conclusion, please go see Elemental in theaters whenever you can. Pixar hasn’t had a single box-office success since Toy Story 4 in 2019, as the last five Pixar films (Onward, Soul, Luca, Turning Red, and Lightyear) were either box-office flops or changed to Disney+ exclusives. In the words of Linguini in Ratatouille “I need this job. I've lost so many”.

Rating: 3.9 stars out of 5

Plus four tears of joy 

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Movie Review: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse                                                                    6-3-23

It has been one year since Miles Morales defeated King Pin and destroyed the Super-Collider. Miles has had trouble balancing superhero life with high school, and one day, he encounters a new villain named Spot, a white humanoid being with inter-dimensional spots all over his body. With the help of Gwen Stacy and Peter B Parker, Miles goes on an adventure across the Spider-Verse to find Spot and save every world known to Spider-Kind.

Even though the film has amazing world building, animation that rivals Pixar and Disney, and good character development on Gwen, I feel that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse suffers from a story and themes that’s too dark and complex compared the original, as well as an unusually long running time (140 minutes long!).

However, there are still a lot of things the filmmakers did right. Spot, when he is on screen, is actually a good villain, though not as good as King Pin. Spot was once a human scientist named Jonathan Ohnn who created a spider that could travel through different dimensions. However, the spider escaped and bit Miles when it wasn’t supposed to. After the Super-Collider blew up, Jon got caught in the explosion and became the freak known as Spot. Now, he has reduced life to burglary, and he actually plans on doing something unspeakable to Miles.

There’s also the world-building, with different types of art styles and mediums for each world Miles and Gwen visit. One world is even made out of a certain brand of popular construction toys!

One of the worlds showcased in this movie is Mumbattan, an India-themed city that is home of this world's Spider-Man, Pavitr Prabhakar.

In conclusion, while not as fun as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is still a joy ride for those who loved the first film. I will, however, warn everyone that the film does have a cliffhanger ending that will lead to the events of Sony’s next film, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, coming March 2024. I just hope that film ends up balancing the comedy and the story in the same fashion as another animated threequel, Kung Fu Panda 3.

Rating: 3.8 stars out of 5