An ok family space adventure about finding your place.
First off this movie went through many problems behind the scenes. Switching directors, changing scripts and having a different feel. We even get to see a bit of this from the first trailer where he had a mom and in the final film both his parents have died. Maybe this is why I feel like this had more potential than what we got.
We follow Elio, who recently had his parents pass. They were the only people who really understood him. Since then he has felt he doesn’t belong. He acts out and skips school to try and be abducted by aliens because maybe they’ll understand him. He does get abducted and ends up making a friend in the stars that shows him maybe he does have a place on Earth.
Visually the movie looks great. It does have that Pixar style that has been used for a lot of their film recently but the space setting does give it a different look. Since they were in space, they had a variety of settings from red fiery enemy bases to colourful and fun-friendly space stations.
It also kinda did horror in a fun way. Although this is a family film there are a few moments where it is a bit scary. I feel like they did it well in a way that was interesting but wouldn’t scare a kid watching. I liked their take on it and having that sci-fi angle lent itself well to creating some tense moments.
Overall I thought it was…fine. The messaging didn’t really resonate with me. I felt like there was just something missing about this film. Elio goes through an arc in the movie but at the beginning, he was just hard to watch. And I felt like certain scenes and ideas could have just been implemented better. I felt like we just didn’t get enough information to help us connect with certain characters and understand their reasoning. I have talked to some who have really liked the film though. So, if you are interested give the trailer a watch below and check it out for yourself!
-Jared Gomes
