Review: A Monster Calls


A frequently bullied young boy (Lewis MacDougall) with a terminally ill mother (Felicity Jones) and mostly absent father (Toby Kebbell) is visited by a giant tree monster (voiced by Liam Neeson) stating it has come to tell the boy three stories and that he in turn will tell the monster a fourth. Sigourney Weaver plays the boy’s rather cold grandmother, whilst Geraldine Chaplin is a school principal.

For quite a while I couldn’t put my finger on why this 2017 fantasy film from director  J.A. Bayona (“The Orphanage”, the gruelling “The Impossible”) wasn’t working for me. The basic elements could’ve and should’ve been really interesting, appealing, and heart-tugging. In execution here…they left me completely cold. I thought surely this must be the case of a poor adaptation of source material that likely would’ve been vastly superior. However, the screenplay is written by author Patrick Ness himself. And then it eventually hit me, I saw potential in the basic elements here for a pretty good reason: They’ve all been pilfered from other films before it. There isn’t much of an original bone in the film’s body, outside of some of the more psychological and darker elements which frankly is a bit lumpy anyway. I don’t think the film ever quite gets around to figuring all of that stuff out cleanly. Which is a shame, because handled better it could’ve potentially saved the film.



I won’t deny that the mother/son relationship here got my waterworks going a bit, but that’s entirely because I lost a very close relative when I was 15 and could personally relate. Therefore cancer earns my tears, not the film. Seriously, cancer can go and get fucked right now. Sorry, but the film is ultimately pretty dull, though young Lewis MacDougall does fine work (playing such a hard luck case that would make even Oliver Twist feel fortunate), and Felicity Jones is terrific whenever around. It just reminded me of too many other things without forging its own original path to stand out. You’ll find elements of “The BFG”, “Pan’s Labyrinth”, “The NeverEnding Story”, the works of JRR Tolkien, the vastly underrated “Hugo”, a straight “Time Bandits”, and several others I could name. The animation sure is striking though, it’s the most original thing in the entire film. The animated segments in the film are really striking and for me unexpected, whilst Liam Neeson’s vocal performance is pitch-perfect as well. The monster itself is an interesting Tolkien-esque CGI creation, too. I was quite disappointed with Sigourney Weaver however, she seems to be focussing too much on nailing an English accent (which she almost does), that she forgets to act. I guess her two-dimensional role doesn’t help, either.



Although there are some fine elements here, including several good performances, this is ultimately a frustrating and disappointing film. Far too many familiar beats stop this story from standing out from the pack. After a while I found myself rather bored. It looks great, it’s really not great. This isn’t a bad film, but it’s the kind of film I really hate because you feel it should’ve worked. That said, many people love it. Judge it for yourself.



Rating: C

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more