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Title: The Last Mimzy
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, though lite on language and violence, there is an unmarried couple who live together and are obviously having sex. Parents not wanting to get into this topic may want to look elsewhere for their family entertainment. Recommended for ages 12 and up. |
"The Last Mimzy" is one of the most frustrating movies to come out this year. How can a movie with so much potential, such an intriguing build up, and ingenious special effects feel like one of the most compromised bores in recent memory? I know science fiction and children's entertainment don't exactly mix well. Science fiction is usually dark, cutting edge, complicated stuff that involves technology to create much of the conflict. Some of the most memorable science films include "The Matrix," "Blade Diamond," "Star Trek," and the "Star Wars." For the most part, these are not children films. Children films are normally lighthearted, fun, and goofy. Everything science fiction is not. Oh, but "The Last Mimzy" sure feels like it contains a stunning sci-fi movie in here. The problem is we don't quite find it here.
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The story of "The Last Mimzy" starts out as a typical children film. The movie revolves around Noah and Emma Wilder (Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn respectively), two kids who are frustrated with their lives. Noah suffers in school, Emma doesn't appear to make friends easily, and they have a work-a-holic dad (Academy Award winner Timothy Hudson) who appears to be working so much that the mother of the house (Joely Richardson) is the one REALLY taking care of the family! Then one day the kids find a chest in the ocean near their house, a chest that contains rocks, a green stone, and a stuffed bunny (among other thing). Noah takes a liking to the shinny, green rock while Emma falls instantly in love with the bunny. Ah, but there is something not quite right with this stuff.
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For started, no adults can see the green rock shimmer and align the stars, while the bunny makes some sort of squeal when around Emma, who claims the bunnies name is Mimzy and that she speaks. Well kids will be kids right? No one says anything, but it becomes harder and harder not to be freaked out when the kids start moving rocks, dissolved their hands into little micro bytes, and talking to stuffed bunnies. Like most kids in kids movies, the two kids start playing with their new powers without much fear or caution, but with a sense of fun. A turning point comes when playing with some rocks results in a blackout that covers half of Seattle. Noah's science teacher, a Buddhist named Larry (Rainn Wilson), is the only adult who questions whether or not Noah has special powers.
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He bases his suspicions on some doodles Noah scribbles in his text book, which really turns out to be symbols from some ancient religion or something. All of this sounds interesting, and indeed it should be, but the movie holds back. The movie throws us suspense and wonder, but it doesn't quite know what to do with it. Sure the kids can make rocks spin, but how will that help them with anything? The kids make these rocks spin several times during the movie, yet nothing seems to come from them. Even if this is cool the first time around, I assume it wouldn't be as cool the fifth and sixth time around. The kids play with these powers, but the movie doesn't really do a good job of explaining how they are able to spin rocks and speak to spiders all of a sudden. Mimzy the bunny seems to be the key to all this, but Mimzy does nothing.
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In fact, it's safe to say that almost nothing happens in this movie. Noah has a dream sequence that involves a brilliant scene where a crystal bridge gets built, but no such bridge does get built. It makes me wonder what the point of the bridge was at all. The movie also holds back with the adults. The mother asks her husband whether or not the family should get help. The father asks what kind of help she had in mind. I point this out because this is a good question. So far we've gotten no indication whether or not what the kids are doing is good or bad. There is a surprising lack of conflict because of this. People react to the strange things they see, but that's about all they do. Nothing ever comes from these reactions, except for the occasional joke, which keeps the movie from being too serious.
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The movie also seems to be stretching itself thin for drama. Case in point: Emma loves Mimzy, but she loves her to a point that is unhealthy. At one point the parents take Mimzy away and Emma cries. This I can understand. At one point the parents ask her to put Mimzy down for five minutes and Emma cries. This is just annoying. She cries over Mimzy seven times in this movie, each time becoming more annoying then the next. Since we cannot hear Mimzy, we shouldn't be expected to side with Emma when it's time to put the toy away for a few minutes. But all the ideas, computer graphics, and questioning, "The Last Mimzy" ends with no sense of accomplishment or purpose. None of the ideas here are fully developed, the history behind Mimzy is murky at best, and the adults seem to be reacting with one liners instead of wonder.
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While I don't doubt there will be kids who get sucked into this movie, there's going to be far more people who walk away frustrated by the lack of depth and clarity. The tagline for this movie is "The Future Wants To Tell Us Something." Well, if the future wants to tell me something, I know I'm not going to get that message from this movie.
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