Okay, okay. I know. There isn’t much in the way of Sci-Fi these last ten years or so. The rise of Harry Potter and the renewed interest build by the Lord of the Rings films has lead toward a plethora of Fantasy. Which, despite Barnes & Nobles, BooksaMillion and Boarders IS NOT A PART OF SCI-FI AND SHOULD NOT BE CATEGORIZED AS SUCH.
Sorry. Had to get it out of my system. Anyway, the title of best sci-fi film of the year is generally a contest with very few entries, 2008 being no different. However, I am all but certain that no matter how good the X-Files 2, The Day the Earth Stood Still remake and Star Trek XI are, they will pail in comparison to WALL:E.
It’s about the closest thing to a perfect film for all ages that I have seen since Finding Nemo. Which was helmed by the same person as WALL:E. Coincidence? I think not.
I really cannot praise this movie enough. It’s heart felt, funny, touching and delivers it’s message of conservation and stewardship of the Earth without ever seeming high handed or preachy. It’s nice to see a sci-fi film that isn’t full of warring alien’s, half nude aliens or both for that matter. This is a film that the youngest of the young and the oldest of the old can both sit down and enjoy immensely.
The story follows the cleanup robot with the acronyms WALL:E (Waste allocation load lifter, earth class). Earth has been abandoned and someone forgot to shut down one of our robotic servants who goes about his job alone for the next 700 years. This ends up giving him quite the little personality (an old staple from Asimovian works). Another ship finally lands on Earth and our solitary robot is joined by the high tech Eve, who is on a classified mission to the planet. It’s love at first sight, at least for WALL:E who tries almost anything to win the affection of his new found companion.
The first 30 minutes of the film contain no dialogue. Zero, zilch, nada. And that’s fine with me. It’s reminicent of the best of Charlie Chapman and his classic silent films of yesteryear. It’s introduces the characters and the general plot well and it’s, well, funny. Oh, and I have to mention that yes the legends are true, cockroaches and Twinkies survived the apocalypse and can still be found in the trash filled Earth.
Folks, go see this film. It’s about time we were given a Sci-Fi work of merit, let alone what is in all likelihood going to be the best film of the summer. Let’s bring our genre back one ticket sale at a time. This really won’t be hard if we keep getting films like WALL:E.
Wall-E totally looks exactly like the robot from “Short Circuit” (minus the cheesy 80’s style)
Wow. How did I not notice that? Short Circuit is a classic.