Did the MCU cause Taika's creativity to wither into nothing? I honestly can't believe that this movie was made by the same artist who created the hilariously witty 'What We do in the Shadows'. While 'Jojo Rabbit' was divisive, its originality landed Taika numerous awards, including an Academy Award for screenplay.
However, this screenplay seems like one of the absolute laziest in years. If you told me that this was the first script ever written by a film student, I would have believed you. As the story is based on real characters and an actual event (and was also the subject of a 2014 documentary), what did Taika add here besides a few obvious jokes and some cheap references? If you've seen the trailer, sorry but you've seen most of the jokes, with the exception of the many movie references that are so desperately trying. This movie can't even trust its audience to get the references; it has to literally have the characters say "like in The Matrix", "like in the Karate Kid", and "that's from Any Given Sunday". Towards the end, it tries to take a more serious tone to give some of the characters a semblance of development, but it all feels too little, too late.
On a positive note, most of the actors (except Will Arnett doing his typical shtick and Taika in an odd cameo) do a good job of trying to get me invested in the team, even if the writing and directing ultimately let them down.
However, this screenplay seems like one of the absolute laziest in years. If you told me that this was the first script ever written by a film student, I would have believed you. As the story is based on real characters and an actual event (and was also the subject of a 2014 documentary), what did Taika add here besides a few obvious jokes and some cheap references? If you've seen the trailer, sorry but you've seen most of the jokes, with the exception of the many movie references that are so desperately trying. This movie can't even trust its audience to get the references; it has to literally have the characters say "like in The Matrix", "like in the Karate Kid", and "that's from Any Given Sunday". Towards the end, it tries to take a more serious tone to give some of the characters a semblance of development, but it all feels too little, too late.
On a positive note, most of the actors (except Will Arnett doing his typical shtick and Taika in an odd cameo) do a good job of trying to get me invested in the team, even if the writing and directing ultimately let them down.