The movie was beautiful. I felt what Jonze and Eggers pulled off best was capturing the intense loneliness of childhood, and the journeys of imagination which spring from that. It's a dark film, but so is childhood, so are so many of the stories we tell to children. When children play make believe, they play war, they play "pretend our parents are dead and now we're orphans."
I thought the island scenes were a little meandering and plotless, fine to have come from a boy's imagination, but not interesting enough to watch for forty minutes. Julia and I talked about how scary it was when one of the beasts lost an arm, and they just laughed it off. In Max's world, creatures have emotions, but no physical harm can come to them.
I want to find out how kids respond to the movie, but in the meantime, here are some highlights from the Times
blog:
I wish I was a kid.
sadly this movie is empty of emotion, dull, yet visually beautiful. As a creative person I can appreciate the effort taken to create such lively characters that create rich expressions, however, unless you are totally stoned, I doubt you will enjoy this film.
Not a Proper Review, But Rather a Rant.
Maybe it would have been better if this movie was rated PG-13, but even that wouldn't stop you people from bringing your kids to see it. This is a great movie, and in my opinion you people are just complaining about it because it's not exactly appropiate for little kids. Realistly, if a kid went off into a far away island where the wild things reside, (pun not intended), this movie shows exactly what would happen. I mean, it's just like Transformers all over again
Ruined a Children's classic!
I am so very sad tonight! My family awoke this morning ready to go see this movie which we have been waiting to see for months! Now I wish I could go back in time and just have stayed home and read the book to them again and used our imaginations as to the adventure Max goes on. They changed the most important part of the book which is that Max goes to his room, his safe-haven, after fighting with his mom. There in his room he allows his imagination to take him away to a land where he could be better understood. BUT in the movie, they have Max run out of the house down a dark street to a beach and set off on a real boat. A child will not be able to connect that this is where the fantasy begins.....He does something terribly unsafe by running away and it is never addressed. I think the director and producers should be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of families by taking our money on the premise that we would see a wonderful story come to life and instead sent us home having to have deep discussions with our children about safety and the difference between fantasy and realism. PLEASE go see the movie without your kids!
Money in the pocket
This movie should have been called "My favorite childhood book was 'Where the Wild Things Are' so I wrote a movie based on it".
Sad, Depressing, Morbidly Melancholy
Probably the most depressing film I have seen in years!
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