Movie Details
Slumberland (2022)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Cast: Jason Momoa, Marlow Barkley and Chris O’Dowd
Movie type: Fantasy/Adventure
Release date: 9 November 2022
IMDB Rating: 6.7/10
Languages: English and Spanish
Duration: 1h 57m
Trailer
Synopsis
Netflix and cheap fantasy, name a more iconic duo. Unfortunately, from the first screenings, Slumberland profiled itself as a forgettable affair that could not be saved even by the otherwise quite unfailing charisma of tough guy Jason Momoa, and the result was unfortunately not surprising. However, what could be ignored and passed off as harmless nonsense for children (right from the start the film “attracts” with a rating of 7+) with slightly blockbuster ambitions, is even worse when you look in the box with the director’s name. Yes, indeed, this latest Netflix adventure fantasy is the work of filmmaker Francis Lawrence, who once wiped our eyes with films like Constantine or I, Legend. However, while watching Slumberland, I concluded that those times are irretrievably gone,
The film, originally named Slumberland and based on the comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, tells the story of a young girl Nemo (Marlow Barkley), and her father (Kyle Chandler), who live alone in a small lighthouse, which is taken care of by the father. However, when the girl’s father soon dies and she has to move to the big city to live with her rich uncle (Chris O’Dowd), she is suddenly thrown into a mysterious hunt for magical artifacts across dream worlds, assisted by the half-man, half-monster Flip ( Jason Momoa), who happened to know her dad. We thus find ourselves in the genre of low or low fantasy, but compared to other better works. Slumberland has no clear rules, so it often seems like a bunch of stolen scenes, which might seem funny on paper, but in reality, they often make you cry.
Unfortunately, the first problem here is the two actors in the main roles. I hate to put on child actors, but Barkley gave one blank expression the entire time, had zero chemistry with the others, and most of the time I had to wonder how on earth she managed to land this role. Momoa enjoyed his role compared to her, but his eccentric dances, speeches, cringe-hopping, and overall playing of Johnny Depp were just as, if not more, painful. A less likable pair of protagonists hasn’t been here for a long time, and now imagine that the movie is a solid two hours long. Surely the creators will at least impress with a strong emotional story about coping with the loss of a parent, right?
I wish. The whole plot about jumping between dream worlds and searching for the treasure/father, while Nema’s real life is falling apart more and more, is sterile, has no mastered pace or gradation, the secondary characters are underutilized, the film has practically no villain (he’s just a giant obnoxious smoke, which looks like a budget copy of theThe Mind Flayer from Stranger Things and thus appears three times in the film without any major characterization), so it has no tension, and as you could already guess from the mention of the main actress’s non-acting, she cannot sell a single emotion.
Which brings us to another point of misery. The last time I saw such bad effects was in the first Spy Kids. There is one dream world chase sequence in the film that was almost like the one from Inception, except not at all. All you see in it is a green screen in the background of every shot. Just two cars speeding down a digital highway in a repulsively empty digital city. Like unfinished concept art. At other times, such as the final sequence at (and below) the sea, it was a bit more tolerable, but you’d still expect a completely different level of visualization from someone as experienced as Lawrence.
In retrospect, I can’t remember a single moment or scene where I felt the slightest bit of joy, which one expects from a similar fantasy. Actually, yes, once again the backward Kyle Chandler with a beard is already traditionally excellent even in a small space, it’s all the more unfortunate that the film did not try to get something more out of that father-daughter relationship, even if only with the help of flashbacks. Instead, we have a titillating Momou, who for the first time in a long time seems really annoying and poorly cast, a bland story that was conceptually far more interesting and imaginatively handled elsewhere (see similar films like A Series of Unfortunate Events or Alice in Wonderland, but also the serial Sandman is on a completely different level) and a few action scenes, so to speak.
Slumberland is crammed with all kinds of digital mess, but at the same time it’s punishingly empty, so I’m having a hard time finding reasons why anyone could consider this at least suitable entertainment for children, except “killing time”. Yes, this movie is a great way to pass the time, but at a time when it’s really easy to get access to countless interesting fairy tales and fantasy stories with nice messages and iconic characters and sequences that will greatly cultivate the tastes of your little ones, this cheesy, but honestly, I simply cannot recommend the spectacle to the little ones. In short, there is no reason.
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