5/10
It made me smile; it made me cringe, the writing was brilliant; the writing was awful, it was subtle and witty; it was dim-witted and tiresome. It was, in fact, the best of times; it was the worst of times. 'Garfield' is one of the most frustrating movies of the year.
From the moment you first hear Bill Murray's voice you know the film-makers have got Garfield spot-on; it is one of the finest pieces of voice-over work ever to grace the silver screen. The casting of Bill Murray was a stroke of genius and lucky for all involved that he accepted the role. It's lucky too the writers decided to keep Garfield's dry wit and sense of humour. If it wasn't for these two things 'Garfield' would have been a complete washout.
The main problems come, not from Garfield, but from the surrounding characters and the plot. One of the strangest choices was the exclusion of CGI from all the animals but Garfield, meaning the CGI Garfield looked out of place amongst them all. One can think the only reason for the lack of other CGI characters was the lack of money to create them. The inclusion of a weird and wonderful array of supporting characters is one of the reasons the comic is so entertaining. Sadly, it was overlooked in the making of this film. Jon, the mice, Nermel and Liz were all underwritten and underused.
The plot grinded away, forcing Garfield to perform tasks that were completely out of character. This is only because it is necessary, in a children's film, for the main character to be the hero. When Toy Story (I+II), Finding Nemo, Holes, Antz and a whole plethora of others raise the bar for children's films, it's a shame studios feel they can still release ones like this. Where the plot is completely out of sync with the main character, the supporting characters are left out of the writing process and the plot goes through the motions as though it is the next in the succession of 'Beethoven' films. For now all we can do is bow down and thank the Gods for Bill Murray and those in the writing team that felt Garfield's cynicism was funny. Unfortunately this part of the writing team was not vocal for long enough.
It made me smile; it made me cringe, the writing was brilliant; the writing was awful, it was subtle and witty; it was dim-witted and tiresome. It was, in fact, the best of times; it was the worst of times. 'Garfield' is one of the most frustrating movies of the year.
From the moment you first hear Bill Murray's voice you know the film-makers have got Garfield spot-on; it is one of the finest pieces of voice-over work ever to grace the silver screen. The casting of Bill Murray was a stroke of genius and lucky for all involved that he accepted the role. It's lucky too the writers decided to keep Garfield's dry wit and sense of humour. If it wasn't for these two things 'Garfield' would have been a complete washout.
The main problems come, not from Garfield, but from the surrounding characters and the plot. One of the strangest choices was the exclusion of CGI from all the animals but Garfield, meaning the CGI Garfield looked out of place amongst them all. One can think the only reason for the lack of other CGI characters was the lack of money to create them. The inclusion of a weird and wonderful array of supporting characters is one of the reasons the comic is so entertaining. Sadly, it was overlooked in the making of this film. Jon, the mice, Nermel and Liz were all underwritten and underused.
The plot grinded away, forcing Garfield to perform tasks that were completely out of character. This is only because it is necessary, in a children's film, for the main character to be the hero. When Toy Story (I+II), Finding Nemo, Holes, Antz and a whole plethora of others raise the bar for children's films, it's a shame studios feel they can still release ones like this. Where the plot is completely out of sync with the main character, the supporting characters are left out of the writing process and the plot goes through the motions as though it is the next in the succession of 'Beethoven' films. For now all we can do is bow down and thank the Gods for Bill Murray and those in the writing team that felt Garfield's cynicism was funny. Unfortunately this part of the writing team was not vocal for long enough.
Tell Your Friends