hughchilles

I liked the casting, Spongebob, Squidward, Mr Krabs particularly shine. Patrick, Plankton and Sandy are fine too, they all nail the voices, Krabs is particularly underrated. The Mayor was good the News Reporter too, felt a lot like their animated counterparts. Pearl I didn't feel was right, amazing singer just didn't feel right.

The costumes, I liked, I really love when someone can embody a character without much makeup, there is a lot of that, I thought Plankton was a bit eh, and his robot girlfriend eh. I think any time there is 2 characters representing the 1 it doesn't really work.

On that note, having miniature sets didn't really work, a lot of theatre success is that empty space between what is shown and what is imagined and they failed a bit there. Some sets were good though, the jelly fish was good, the climbing the mountain scene worked. So many felt lifeless and empty though, it made me start looking at the stage design because that was more impressive than the set design.

That brings me to the plot and songs, I didn't like. We have a story of apocalypse and confused plot with Plankton, we have a subplot of racism to Sandy being a land animal, it just felt really forced and not at all like the show. We barely get the Krusty Krab but the brief shot of Squidward at the register gave brief joy. They aimed too big whilst at the same time had very little to say. The show focused on everyday issues and emotional conflicts that felt realistic and important, not end of the world clichés. It felt a lot like when we finally got the Simpsons movie and it was like 'Really? That's the story you went with?' The world they created felt like some kind of nightmare choice between an existence of toxic positivity or firey death. Songs felt repeated, themes of friendship and positivity while having this almost occult-like gloom.

This brings me to the big issue I had with this, symbolism and occult. People who don't know what I am talking about will thumbs down me now but for those awake... Intense amounts of horns hand signs, illuminati pyramid hand sign, cult of star worshippers wearing pentagram gowns, it just goes on. Maybe I am reading into this but gosh there are a lot of coincidences if not. Why so many horns hand signs? It is nickelodeon so none of that surprised me. I felt even the volcano was a bit of a giant eye symbol.

Overall I am giving it points for the casting, their voice acting and for the moments it captured the vibe of the show. The foley was awesome too. It is just a shame it had this eerie undertone to it all that felt like I was being brainwashed.

I love this kind of high concept movie, I could probably imagine the complaints with this movie but I felt a couple of plot holes I wondered about were answered by the end. It juggles a heap of concepts with a seemingly modest budget and does incredibly well without falling into cliches. There are not many parts that drag or feel too ridiculous, there is some suspension of disbelief but come on people, it's a movie about cloning and consciousness transference, if you know what you're getting into and are interested in the themes, it nails them. Keanu is fairly robotic but it serves the character, it makes sense to everything. This is like Ex Machina, Splice, Frankenstein, Transcendence; if you like any of those movies you're in for a real underrated high concept treat here.

Maybe mild spoilers... Thought provoking movie about relationships and adultery trust and love. It kept me wondering where it was going and had a lot of tension and the performances helped this never quite sure who was lying, it seemed like it was heading to an exciting conclusion then just kind of trailed off, maybe that was the point of it like they are doomed to do this cycle repeatedly, but yea unsatisfying when you just want this character to have happiness, maybe that is the point too he can't be helped he's either unhappy with or without her. Maybe it is about embracing your dark side maybe he is lying more by not doing that. Maybe everyone is flawed. I could be giving it too much credit but great cinematography and acting, worth it for that at least.