Review: Wall-E

Well here is my take on the film Wall-E

Wall-E tells the story of a robot on earth whose sole job is to clear up earths rubbish, unfortunately he is the last thing on earth because all the humans left because earth became unliveable after a huge increase in fumes and rubbish, Wall-E has been stuck on earth for around 700 years and eventually becomes curious and lonely being the only robot left on earth with everything at his desposal, he then meets the robot EVE who comes to earth in search of plants as a probe droid, he falls in love with her almost instantly and tries to win her heart on an intergalactic mission which entails in humanity's return to earth.

Wall-E starts with a fantastic scene featuring Wall-E cleaning up the earth and searching through the rubbish for any remenant of earth that he takes a shine to, this scene is both visually stunning and very humorous and it is impossible to not at all feel compassion for this lonesome robot. When EVE arrives the mood changes slightly but it still runs along very well by building Wall-E's character and then showing how this films plot will esculate into an intergalactic romp of romance and comedy. Scenes with EVE on earth are both funny and especially heart wrenching when we see Wall-E trying to win the heart of this flying iPod with lasers!

What really makes this film is how well the two main characters are portrayed and how much compassion is felt for them, especially Wall-E, the build up that is given to Wall-E winning the heart of EVE is fantastic and raises lots of points about love that other films have failed in doing so. This film is very wise in waiting quite a long time until EVE ends up falling in love with Wall-E, but it shows the hardships of it as Wall-E appears to annoy EVE accidentally on multiple occassions by faults which are not his own. Combining a perfectly written love story with one of the cutest characters of all time makes a perfect blend of compassion for this Sardine can on tire tracks.

Wall-E's main strength is that it is undeniably loveable as a film, but it has some certain weaknesses for instance the start of the film is the only part of the film that fully embraces the humour of the entire film, and to have this lack of consistency does weaken the flow of the film.
Once aboard the Axiom (the ship in which the rest of humanity are living) there is a lot less interraction between Wall-E and EVE and perhaps too much focus is on the captain of the ship, and it seems like the films is trying too hard to be a space age film aswell as a love story because of this, this is a foolish mistake to make for a film that has shown that has prooven to be deeply emotional and loving, the more space age stuff feels a bit like filler so that the glorious end scene can be built up even more, though it does seem like filler it is still good filler and does keep some consistent humour.
The film does ask the question half way through "what are Pixar trying to do here?" seeing as the audience feel that they are in for a beautiful love story....in Space! but changing that makes the film seem a tad like 2 films merged into one, which is why the second half probably loses audiences attention compared to the first half, but not enough to stop the audiences compassion for our lovesick sardine can.
Though the second half of the film does help to show that Wall-E and EVE are possibly the most human things on board the ship, and that in a world that there is no love 2 very unlikely characters can experience it, which adds a brilliant touch of beauty to an already extremely beautiful plot.

Luckily Pixar did not go down the road of thinking that a film which is visually amazing will automatically do well and they have created an excellent plot and used it's visual excellence to really bring that alive.

My view of Wall-E as i left was it is the greatest portrayal of love in a film ever but the problem is it needs something more than that if it attempts to be something more, which as a Pixar film it is doomed to have to be funny, and it is, just not enough.


Rating: ****/*****
Reasons to watch it: Greatest representation of love in a film, ever, Wall-E is undeniably cute.
Best Bit: When Wall-E shows EVE his various sacred pieces of rubbish in his quaint home
What it needs: More humour
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