Yup, it’s another catch-up movie for this review. My girlfriend really wanted to see the latest Pixar movie, so as is always the case these days, I held off on seeing it right away. I was surprised to see it was still playing at the local AMC, and since we were holding off on Fantastic Four for the time being for personal reasons, we opted for this one instead. I had figured it was out of theaters by now since it didn’t sell as many tickets as Disney might have wanted it to, but it was still playing, and we got in what turned out to be a packed house.
OK, it was a small screening room with maybe three dozen seats, but they were all sold out.
Elio Solis (Yonas Kibreab) is a recently orphaned young boy who has moved in with his Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña), an Air Force Major working at a base that monitors space debris. By chance, Elio learns of the Voyager space probe’s golden record, and the idea that aliens might be out there and looking to make contact interests Elio quite a bit as Olga seems to be putting her astronaut dreams on hold to care for him while having no idea how to get the boy what he needs. As it is, Elio does manage to make contact with aliens, and they do come to take him away under the mistaken idea that he’s the leader of Earth.
The aliens all live and work in the Communiverse, a collective of nonviolent aliens from many different worlds that share their knowledge and ideas. However, then there’s the other perspective new member Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a more militant alien that wants to use the tech of the Communiverse to improve his people’s war-making abilities. When the Communiverse refuses, Grigon opts to make war with them, leading Elio to attempt to negotiate a truce between Grigon and the others, leading to a friendship with Grigon’s more pacifist-minded son Glordon (Remy Edgerly). But Elio’s options will be very limited if the aliens learn he’s lying about his leadership status, and Glordon may be friendly and a kid after Elio’s own heart, but his father is a much different story.
My girlfriend is of the belief that there are no bad Pixar movies. That doesn’t mean that they’re all instant classics or anything. She just thinks that every one of them offers something. I’m not 100% sure I agree with that, but I can at least say that they tend to have some top-notch animation and put the story first. However, as far as Elio goes, it felt rather rote. There’s not much here that other, better movies haven’t done before. There were a couple moments I thought were genuinely funny or heart-warming, but at the same time, there was nothing here that I don’t think I haven’t seen before anywhere.
In the end, that is what Elio is. There are some nice alien designs, and like all Pixar movies, the story does seem to be character-focused as Elio, and by extension Olga, Grigon, and some of the other characters, all learn to value what really matters, whatever that is. I think the thing here is the movie is probably perfectly fine for kids, but unlike the better kid-focused movies, this one maybe didn’t have as much to offer adults. It’s a movie where there isn’t really anything wrong with the movie, but at the same time, I don’t think there’s much here to recommend to others.
Grade: C+
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