Early Man (2018)
Early Man (2018)
Directed by Nick Park
Story by Mark Burton and Nick Park
Screenplay by Mark Burton and James Higginson
Rated PG
Despite being amused by some clever gags and witty jokes sprinkled here and there, I walked out of Aardman’s latest effort, Early Man, with a pretty big “meh” feeling. I have heard it is usually preferable for audiences to either walk out of a film elated, angry or disappointed because that will at least give one something to talk about. I can somewhat agree with that since leaving a movie feeling indifferent sort of puts one in the predicament of not having much to say. I love Aardman animation and have seen nearly everything they have made from Wallace and Gromit to The Pirates! Band of Misfits AKA The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists in the UK (2012) so it makes seeing this new film a bit of a bummer. It’s not bad by any means it’s just far from their best work.
When their home in the lush green valley (which is surrounded by wastelands) is threatened by the arrival of the bronze age people led by Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) who wants to mine, you guessed it, bronze, Dug (Eddie Redmayne) and his tribe of stone age folk have to challenge the bronze age people to a game of Football (Soccer for us in the US) to win their home back.
The story is one that is fairly standard. It deals with people who are primitive who somehow have to complete the seemingly impossible task of beating those who are better than them at a certain game. But since they don’t know how to play, Dug gets the help of a bronze age girl named Goona (Maisie Williams) to teach them and she in turn plays on their team and…you get the idea. It’s the underdog sports story told in stop motion animation and set long before modern civilization came about. I guarantee you have seen this story before. This is pretty much a recycled, no surprises story that you have seen many times before only better, live action or otherwise.
Now a recycled/familiar story in an animated comedy is usually something I am OK with overlooking as long as the characters and the comedy make-up for that shortcoming to provide entertainment. But the characters are not particularly memorable and, dare I say it, dull especially in comparison to ones like Wallace and Gromit, Ginger, Rocky or the many chickens from Chicken Run (2000) or even the Pirate Captain and his crew from The Pirates! Band of Misfits. None of them really do or say anything that would go out of the norm for characters in stories like this. Be it Dug having to convince his tribe leader (Timothy Spall) to go along with the game and participate in it or Dug becoming demoralized to where he thinks they can’t win about two thirds of the way through, the film doesn’t do much within its setting to change things up on either comedic or narrative sides.
The voice acting is fine except for Tom Hiddleston’s Lord Nooth who does this sort of French accent with his character that progressively got on my nerves and I just wanted him shut his mouth. The humor is something of a mixed bag. As I stated at the beginning, the film does have its share of good visual gags and clever jokes but a lot of the humor is incredibly obvious and based on what the film sets up plot wise, you can guess which gags will come about and they are mostly lame. But as usual with Aardman, the stop-motion animation is top notch and shows that they still have it. The character and setting designs are unmistakably theirs with characters and environments crafted with incredible detail. Even when they clearly combine stop-motion with computer animation in a few scenes, they manage to make the combination look non-intrusive. Animation wise, this film is lovingly crafted.
This isn’t an unwatchable or a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination. This is one that will certainly entertain kids as this one is clearly geared towards them as opposed to previous Aardman projects that reached a broader audience. I just feel that this is Aardman’s weakest project since Flushed Away (2006). To those interested, I would wait for a rental. For now, just stay home and watch Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run or The Pirates! Band of Misfits as those are definitely stronger and funnier works.
