Arthur and the Invisibles Reviews

I always had some mixed feelings about Luc Besson’s work. On one hand, he has always been one of the most ambitious French directors, he has directed some very interesting movies (especially ‘ Nikita’ ) and he has even invented his own style (‘cinéma du look’ ). On the other hand, I didn’t like many of his movies (‘Léon’ is one of the most overrated movies ever made in my opinion), his style is highly superficial and 90% of the movies he produced were just disposable garbage. So, before watching this flick, I was rather skeptical. Just like Madonna, Luc Besson was so arrogant, he thought he could also write children books and adapt those in some very expensive animated features. Still, I must admit the whole thing was not bad at all. Indeed, the CGI animation was just really gorgeous. It was honestly some of the best I have ever seen and I have seen a lot of animated features. It was really beautiful, really detailed, and managed to have its own style, really different from what comes from the USA or Japan. Unfortunately, the story was nothing really amazing and really pedestrian. Some could argue that since it is a kids flick, it doesn’t really matter but I don’t agree at all. We shouldn’ t patronize children and give them some unoriginal, uninspired or stupid stories to watch, considering the wealth of great family features out there, it is entirely unnecessary. To conclude, even though the story is rather disappointing (something recurrent in Besson’s work…), it remains a decent feature thanks to the amazing animation and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

I went into this movie not too sure what to expect. Most of the reviews for the movie have been fair to poor. I wanted to go because the trailer for this movie looked pretty cool. My kids have been asking to see it also. So we packed up the family and made a day of it. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. It was very fun to watch. I heard some criticism on the animation, but I thought the world that was created in the animation was fresh and very eye appealing. The action scenes were quick paced and exciting to watch. The story line is very predictable which I think is a good thing for this type of movie. Its target audience is kids. They don't go for the plot twists and turns that we adults like to see. My ten year old son came out of the movie and said he would rate the movie an "A". My daughters responded with the request, "Can we buy that on DVD when it comes out?" That is pretty high praise from my kids. If you have a family that likes to watch movies, I think that you might be pleasantly surprised by this movie. It won't win any awards, but thats OK because your kids will have a blast and if you're like me, that stands for a lot.

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