LogFAQs > #975286494

16. The Sea Beast

Ermine: 9
Suprak: 9
Mythiot: 14
Red: 14
Johnbobb: 15
Plasma: 16
Evillord: 18
Karo: 22
Inviso: 24

Total: 141

Ermine: This is a very average film with some cute and fun moments... but not much else.
One thing that stuck out to me is how poorly written the main kid character was. Maisie? Was that her name?
Anyways. When we first start the film and are introduced to this child, she's kind of a brat and full of herself. You know, like all annoying kid characters are, at least to start... and then she stows herself away on the ship.. and within maybe a couple minutes? Her character COMPLETELY changes and all of a sudden she just knows everything and is the perfect little child, having the answer and doing the right thing at all times.
What the hell happened? Have we heard of writing character development? Because I don't think the writers have! You don't introduce a character like that and then INSTANTLY, for NO REASON, have her completely change and be perfect in every way. The whiplash I got from this stayed with me throughout the whole film.
Also, I was waiting for the little Blue beastie to have some importance in any way, but nope, he did nothing but just be cute the whole time. Wow, what a let down.
A lot of negative here but there's really not much else to focus on. The good stuff was fine. Movie looked good and was overall pleasant to watch. I think it could have done a whole lot more to stand out, but eh, it was fine.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

Red: Little girl tags along with mr bland to discover that surprisingly the sea beasts werent all evil all along. Seriously, our captain to be might be the most generic "hero" on the entire list. Hes got the most generic look, hes destined for greatness but has to learn something new(From a child of all things) to eventually reach his destiny or whatever. With a predictable plot, this movie really drags itself out to unnecessarily close to 2 hours long. We open with this competition between traditional hunters and a ship decked the fuck out with cannons. Spoilers the cannon ship is worthless and cant serve its purpose. So our "hunters aren't needed" plotline was a waste. The hunters need to go to a creepy poison vendor to apparently in bad form kill the beast which is supposed to bring bad juju or whatever that will never really materialize in meaningful form. Our two split off heroes learn quickly the beasts aren't bad, except you know some of them are kind of murderous but lets gloss over this because its convenient. There was just a habit to gloss over details for what ultimately was a basic plot that we've seen before.

Johnbobb: It's How to Train Your Dragon, but with a bigger dragon, and also the typical adult man/young girl friendship that, while cute, is always weirdly common in movies. Seriously, how often do you see the opposite, with an adult woman hanging out with a little boy as unlikely friends? Anyway, this movie is very good, even if it's definitely no HTTYD.

Plasma: The animation was fantastic, but the story was meh, and the ending was so ridiculous that I thought I was watching Training Day.
The core problem with this movie, however, is how generic it feels. I mean, what distinguishes this particular group of pirates from others? They dont have a unique code or special style or anything like that. Theyre just people playing dress-up on a boat. Then you have Jacob and Maisie, your typical cynic-idealist duo that gets stranded on a deserted island until the not-so-nasty Sea Beast bails them out. From there, the movie is a snoozer until the Sea Beast gets captured and dragged back to the evil king and queen. In the finale, the Sea Beast proves nonviolent, and thats enough to convince every dedicated beast-hunter to immediately abandon their hostility toward all other beasts. Yeah, okay, sure.

Evillord: An interesting near-miss of a movie. It has a lot of the ingredients for a solid animated flick - the narrative is interesting with some complex characters. There's a heroic sea captain and father figure turned misguided Captain Ahab analog. The two central leads have a nice progression as initially-enthusiastic sea monster hunters who learn the error of their ways, then fight against the monster-killing culture they were born into, through an unlikely friendship with the sea beast on the poster (though I do feel they decide the monster is friendly a little TOO easily). There's an emotional conflict between the Captain Ahab guy and his adopted son over what to do with the monsters and a cool first mate lady who also goes through self-doubt regarding whether she is doing the right thing and if it's too late to change. The setting is also realized with a lot of love for old-timey nautical and pirate aesthetics including funny yo ho ho dialog. It just doesn't quite come together to make an actual good movie. Part of this is because the story is a little too big even for a two-hour movie (with twelve minutes of credits). The ending wraps things up WAY too quickly and neatly without exploring the specifics of how the huge culture shift the heroes cause might really change the world. Was the monarchy abolished or reformed, and if the former what became of the King and Queen? What did all the hunters do with their lifelong career rendered invalid? What did the curse the Captain Ahab guy took on himself to get a big gun to shoot the sea monster with actually end up doing? The viewer is left without any answers to questions like these that could've made the narrative feel more complete and more interesting.
Secondly, the presentation just isn't very good, especially the audio. Captain Ahab doesn't have a commanding or intimidating voice, the fight scenes fail to convey a sense of excitement or urgency because the music is super bland and neither the actors nor the stiff CGI models can sell it. Some stormy seas with dark skies would've also helped create a much more captivating and moody atmosphere - Moby Dick itself was melodramatic as fuck to its benefit with long descriptions of sailors struggling against the wrath of whales and the sea at once. In contrast, most of the fight scenes in this movie take place on sunny days with calm seas. The atmosphere just doesn't match the mood of a hectic battle against an awe-inspiring aquatic colossus. It ends up being best in the brief underwater scenes where almost all the shitty audio is muted - there's a great image of a wounded, colossal sea monster sinking into the black depths of the ocean and threatening to drag the shadow of a tiny man down with it near the start, and another cool shot of the two main characters noticing the unblinking eyes of Red staring up at them when they're underwater with her, but apart from these moments the emotions the film was shooting for never transferred themselves over to me because of the presentation issues. I'm actually tempted to suggest that someone, someday, should try and remake it, but alas this version just isn't very good.