IF came out earlier this year and it really seemed like it was just a grown up version of Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. John Krasinski is both in it and he directed it. I think that he has a decent enough range but having Ryan Reynolds in the movie hurts it I think. Krasinski, Reynolds and Zachary Levi all have the same energy to me, they are relatively mediocre at exactly one thing and that is all they are capable of doing. I wouldn’t consider any of them serious actors, yet somehow they keep getting hired. No one had high hopes for this movie, but it came out this year which means I have to watch it so here we go.
All that said they did fill a movie with children which is a surefire way to at least get me to watch the film. Because all children are adorable, precious little angels and I will watch them be cute for 2 hours even if the film is terribly written.
The best part of the film is obviously the voice cast. I am not a huge Krasinski or Reynolds fan but Steve Carrell and Phoebe Waller-Bridge were truly fantastic choices. And they were very well cast in their roles.
I also like the animation/CGI side by side with the real human stuff. I don’t think any film has properly captured that magic since Who Framed Roger Rabbit and I don’t think any film will. But IF at least makes a decent try at it and it doesn’t suck.
I think that Ryan Reynolds is actually Bea’s imaginary friend. That feels a lot obvious but I guess we’ll see.
The plot is actually moving extremely slowly. So much nothing happens in this first act, we kind of have a plot and then the characters just wander aimlessly around the story for about an hour before anything else happens. The plotline that is there is good, my main criticism of Harold the Crayon was that it should have been about adults recapturing their imaginations and sense of wonder and that is essentially the story this movie is telling. The execution of the story is fine. There is just something missing here.
I think the first fix for this film is casting someone other than Ryan Reynolds. His acting style is just being himself and at this point it really takes you out of the story. The man doesn’t have any skill or range. I think someone like Tom Hanks would have been a great choice, if we wanted younger and goofy but with actual acting ability Chris Hemsworth is right there. I just think we needed a different adult lead.
The other major fix necessary would be the pacing. It is too slow. There is an act structure of some kind but the first act drags on quite a bit. And then the second act takes a while to get going. I think there was about 30 minutes from the first half of the movie that could have been cut. It really feels like writers are trying to hit a 2 hour mark in their scripts regardless of genre for some reason.
It was fine. It was definitely a skippable movie. But it does tell a story that I think is necessary. I just wish it was executed better. 6.5/10 at best. I think that there were some really easy, common sense things to fix if the filmmakers had edited literally anything before starting to film. There is a severe industry issue with a lack of oversight, I do not buy into this idea that creatives should have unbridled time and money to do whatever they want. Filmmaking is a collaborative process that requires people to think of the audience and the story and the characters and not just what the creatives want.
About the Creator
Alexandrea Callaghan
Certified nerd, super geek and very proud fangirl.
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