"The biggest problem with this movie is that it can't decide what it is about, and thus winds up being about nothing."
That is the most succinct way to describe this film that I've read. The movie was just so...unfocused. When it ended I was like, "What happended? What about those Dragons at the start of it? Why is there a double of that kid?" Nothing seemed like it was ever really explained properly.
I agree 100% with your statment that a movie should be merited on its own accord, rather than supported by the material it's based on. I mean everything in this movie, was just incomprehensible, the character motives, the plot, etc, which is not good when a movie is trying to appeal to people outside of a source material.
Decent assessment. It sets up several interesting plot threads in the beginning, drops them entirely after introducing them and has the protagonists doing nothing for about an hour in the middle before fighting Cob at the end. Then again, lack of focus and ending fatigue are problems I have with most Ghibli films, so it didn't exactly seem out of place here.
Good call. I started watching this film with an eleven and an eight year old, who immediately asked "why?" when Arren killed his father. We had to stop it there for timing reasons, but having watched the rest of the film myself that night, I know I won't be able to answer the girls' question when I see them next. I have no idea why Arren did that.
The imagery of the film is beautiful though. Watch it with the mute button on.
I can agree with most of this, but:
It winds up to be some big bad who wants to use the protagonist to gain immortal life, which is never explained as a bad thing.
Actually, it was. The imbalance in the world causing misery and woe for everyone was a direct result of Cob's matical attempts at gaining eternal life. It was adequately phrased that someone gaining eternal life is akin to stopping the entire flow of the ocean just to save one wave from breaking.
by introducing a Big Bad, the movie is able to just have the hero kill her and have the movie be resolved without actually overcoming some overarching theme, or character flaw
Cob's a guy (really), and Arren did overcome a character flaw and overarching scene before fighting Cob, it was made a big deal of and everything. Sadly, that ended up being completely meaningless to defeating Cob, since we got the Deus ex Machina to do that instead.
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Avoidance
The title is the best advice for this movie. The biggest problem with this movie is that it can't decide what it is about, and thus winds up being about nothing. The movie starts off with a powerful battle between two dragons during a raging storm, which is explained as a rare and foreboding sighting. Unfortunately, we brush right past this, never looking back. We then are introduced to a plague that is ravaging the countryside, which is ignored, a balance of the world that is threatened, also ignored, and then we see the King murdered by an assassin, which is also ignored.
Now, the movie should have stopped here, and it could have weaved all these things to make an interesting story, where all these problems are related.
The main character is probably the best personification of this movie. At times he's suicidal, sometimes he a kick-ass psychotic, but most of the time he's just an unlikable pansy. He fit's this movie because, like the plot, he has no consistency.
The movie then goes through a few more plot points that are ignored like slavery, drug abuse, and the importance of balance with nature. It isn't until the middle of the movie that I even got a sense of conflict. It winds up to be some big bad who wants to use the protagonist to gain immortal life, which is never explained as a bad thing. The author of the book pointed this out well, by introducing a Big Bad, the movie is able to just have the hero kill her and have the movie be resolved without actually overcoming some overarching theme, or character flaw.
By the end of the movie you could just tell that the director was just throwing in the towel with one of the most asinine Deus Ex Machina that I have ever seen. It goes so far beyond Ass Pull that it reaches up to the small intestines.
I suppose a common defense for this movie is that all the unexplained plot points are explained in the books, which I have heard are really good. However this is not a defense. Movies should be able to stand up on their own merits. You don't see it opening with "Warning, You should read the book first". While I am not criticizing supporting material, which I think can really add to the experience, the movie should be able to stand up on it's own two legs; or is it too much to ask that the movie be good on it's own without relying on the success of other people's works?