Question.. Did this movie come out in Malaysia? Cause I don't remember this having any promos here. But anyway let's get on talking about this cool film called Where The Wild Things Are by the ever-so-awesome Spike Jonze.
Where The Wild Things Are is based on the Maurice Sendak children's book about a kid, Max who is misunderstood (and when I say misunderstood I mean adults think he's cacat akal) Max runs away from home and gets on this mysterious boat that takes him to an island where the Wild Things of his imaginations exist and he is crowned their king.
Once Max reaches the island and meets the Wild Things, the film becomes pure magic. You feel the beauty of a child's imagination. The cinematography is hella gorgeous here.Every fantasy landscape that you ever dreamed as a kid is in this movie I kid you not. The Wild Things are really well done, the special effects are very real, very believable. A treat for any fantasy lovers really.
But Wild Things does get a bit boring after awhile. It drags out the second act way too long. Most of the time it seems there wasn't really anything going on in the film. We get this string of montages of Max and the Wild Things having fun while Juno-ish music play in the background. Which really left me wondering what was the point to this whole movie. It's not like I wasn't enjoying myself, far from it, I felt like I was reliving my childhood watching them, I just kept thinking like... where's this story going?
And that kid Max Records man... he's is absolutely fantastic. He sold this film for me. This 10 year old practically carries the weight of the entire film. He was like the only human actor for a good 90 minutes of the movie. Records captures the innocence of children but also the destructive nature of their imagination.
I gotta admit, I thought the kid was a bit too wild. It's like I was witnessing the origin of a future serial killer or something hahaha. He's like running around screaming like a banshee, he's wrestling the Wild Things and scratching them in the holiest of hollies. The whole time I'm watching him do dangerous stuff with the Wild Things,I'm going like" OMG this kid is gonna get himself killed." Kinda reminds me of myself when I was 7.
Wild Things is not a kid's movie. I guarantee you if you take your kids to see this, they will be bored out of their minds. This is more of a kid's movie for adults to be nostalgic of their childhood. It has zero humor that children enjoy (you know.. the fart/burp jokes) but it does have lots of great moments that I think only a mature audience can appreciate.
Where The Wild Things Are is a visual opus, every shot is superbly beautiful and the visual effects, dare I say are on par with Avatar. As for the story... oh well. Gorgeous, profound and draggy. It's a film where the little kids will die of boredom, we teens will enjoy watching but will go "WTF?" at the end, and the adults will go "Sighhh.. those were the days"
I predict Oscar nods for Best Visual Effects, Best Cinematography & Best Art Direction.
RATING: 6/10