ELIO Review

Elio is the latest Pixar movie to hit theaters, and it’s an original story, and that has become a problem for Disney and Pixar when it comes to box office draw. Last year’s sequel to Inside Out rapidly became one of the biggest movies of the summer, reaching more than a billion dollars in ticket sales, while Elemental, the original movie from 2023, struggled to make it close to half a billion dollars. Now the launch of Elio to lackluster ticket sales is putting the spotlight on the wrong things. I think the movie should be evaluated on its own merits, not its ticket sales. 

Saying that, Elio is probably the closest to a kids’ movie than many of its counterparts, that are family movies. What I mean by this is that there are movies that are designed to entertain the kids but offer little for the parents to grasp on. They have a basic storyline, and there are no complex plots, and the growth of the characters is as straightforward as it can be. Illumination movies come to mind in this regard. The Minions and Despicable Me movies are as simple as they get, or this year’s Dogman from Dreamworks, or the Mario Bros. Movie from 2023. Basically, the only thing they add to the movie to entertain the adults is music from the 80s and 90s. 

In contrast, the best Pixar movies like Inside Out, Up, and Wall-E include complex emotions, and the plots are driven by the main characters' failings. That is why those movies are so successful in entertaining kids and parents alike; it’s not a chore for a parent to accompany their kids to the best animated kids’ movies. 

Elio is in the middle of this. It has a very simplistic story around Elio, and to be honest, it is very predictable. But the evolution and the growth of the main villain and its family were more entertaining and heartfelt than the rest of the movie. Maybe I am biased because I am a parent, and it made me feel the connection to Lord Grigon, portrayed by Brad Garrett, and his son, Glordon, voiced by Remy Edgerly. The rest of the cast is pretty good. The titular character is played by Yonas Kibreab, who brings a lot of energy to the character, and his aunt Olga Solis is played well by Zoe Saldana. 

The picture, as any other Pixar animated movie, is beautiful. It has that Pixar technological prowess that I don’t think any other animation studio can reach. Maybe the closest I have seen in that regard is Blur Studio. In the shorts they do, especially in the Death Love +Robots series on Netflix. But those are shorts, no one can reach and maintain that visual fidelity and creative artistry for a 2-hour film like Pixar does. 

In the end, I think Elio is good. I would probably put it in the lower tier of Pixar movies. It is way better than Lightyear and the Good Dinosaur, probably better than Elemental, but I don’t think it gets close to the best what Pixar can offer. I would still recommend it, and I will probably watch it again when it hits Disney Plus in 2 or 3 months. 

JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH - Early Review

The Video Review is in the CinemaJam Podcast youtube channel!

Jurassic Park for me is one of the top 20 movies of all time. It was at the time groundbreaking in special effects, and the mix of human survivors and dinosaurs was balanced enough to keep audiences engaged. Steven Spielberg did an amazing job in bringing to life the world created by Michael Crichton in his book, and built 2 movie franchises that have lasted more than 30 years, but the thing is that these trilogies, The Jurassic Park Trilogy and the Jurassic World trilogy, have only given us diminishing returns not only in ticket sales, but in movie quality. 

We are now getting a new Jurassic World movie, subtitled Rebirth, indicating a new creative team, with Gareth Edwards as director and David Koep as writer, and new leading actors. In this case, Universal Pictures replaced one Marvel superhero with another. Scarlett Johansson is taking over the role of Chris Pratt in the leading role of Jurassic World - Rebirth, and includes a host of supporting characters, from which Mahershala Ali’s character is above everyone else. Although, I also liked the civilian family played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blair, David Iacono, and Audrina Miranda. 

I think the new creative team did a superb job in telling a new story in the Jurassic Park universe. There are references to the other movies, but they are not in your face. Gareth Edwards and David Koep should be names easy to recognize by cinephiles and big monster movie fans. First, David Koep is the writer of the first 2 Jurassic Park movies directed by Steven Spielberg. Among many other popular action movies, the guy can write good action pieces and is very good at creating engaging characters, and that is one of the magnificent things that I liked about this new iteration of the movie. The characters are interesting, even the shallowest ones, feel like they had a motivation, and every time a new character is killed you feel the connection between the different characters and how it affects them. At least with Mahershala Ali’s character, who comes in as a support character to Scarlett Johansson’s traumatic past. He is the real heart of the story, in conjunction with a stranded family that has been attacked by a Mosasaurus in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. ScarJo and Mahershala’s team rescues them from the sea, but as soon as they do, everyone becomes stranded again and is pushed for survival on one of the Jurassic World Islands. 

The story is a retread of the second Jurassic Park movie(The Lost World: Jurassic Park). Basically, Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, with 3 other mercenaries that are there just to be food for the dinosaurs, are all guns for hire that have been contracted to acquire blood samples from live dinosaurs for a pharmaceutical company, etc. It is not really important; it is just an excuse to go back to a place where humans shouldn’t go. End of story, but as I said, David Koepke knows how to write characters and make them compelling, and the family that is rescued is actually on a different path from the mercenary group, and that makes it interesting. In that sense, it is like when Grant and the kids traverse the jungle by themselves in the first Jurassic Park movie and end up learning more about themselves than they originally expected in the trip. 

ScarJo, in the end, is closer to the character of Chris Pratt as I mentioned before. She is a military type, keeping it cool all the time, and barely reacting to what is happening around her. As I said before, Mahershala Ali and the family are the only ones that react like human beings. The rest felt like following the plot that is required for them. Especially the 2 characters I haven’t mentioned, the scientist guy played by Jonathan Bailey and the corporate guy played by Rupert Friend. That’s the only thing I am going to say about them, whatever you imagine will happen to them you are probably right. 

I haven't talked yet about the director, and he is also a good part of the creative team, and I think he did an excellent job. Gareth Edwards is a talented director, as I mentioned in my Letterbox review: “Gareth Edwards knows how to make monster movies. His first feature film "Monsters" is a great independent movie around the premise of giant aliens living in the tropics. He then made the only good American Godzilla movie and now has made the only good Jurassic World movie.”. He can create a lot of tension and keeps the action easy to follow, even at night, and when running from the dinosaurs. I think the movie is well paced, none of the scenes were overly complicated long action scenes that added anything to the plot, like in the last 2 Jurassic World movies, that went for overly bombastic action set pieces, instead of following logical paths or human behavior. 

In the end, I liked Jurassic World Rebirth. I would recommend it. I think it shares more with the first Jurassic Park Trilogy than Jurassic World. I would recommend it to anyone who liked that trilogy. On a side note I think that Jurassic Park 3 is an underrated film. And I will watch this movie again, something that I couldn't say about Jurassic World Dominion and Fallen Kingdom, movies that I could barely watch when they came out in theaters. I was more interested in replaying the Jurassic World Evolution games than rewatching those movies.

Until next time, keep jamming about movies!