aidan’s review published on Letterboxd:
It's tough to determine how to rate this movie. On the one hand, this really might be the best looking film of the year. I am so serious, Villenueve can go take a hike. There is nothing better then seeing crazy practical effects, wacky character design, random claymation sequences, Danny Devito as a weird Goblin guy, that is what the movies are all about. And once it hits the third act it just becomes completely unhinged and it's this beautiful mess with one of my favorite needledrops of the year.
On the other hand: it does kind of take it's sweet time to get to that beautiful mess. It spends a whole lot of time pretending it's going to care about any of the plot threads it's setting up before swiftly tossing them out the window. Maybe Burton should've just gone full Gremlins 2 mode and have it be total insanity from start to finish.
But I gotta be fair to Tim, cause I see the subtext he's going for. Lydia is meant to be a metaphor for him with her selling out and making a ghost show being him selling out and making stuff like the live action Dumbo. Remember that? So Justin Theroux's character being both a corporate stooge and dating Lydia is a bit of a meta joke: the studio is literally fucking him. From that angle the chaotic ending could represent Burton giving a middle finger to the studios or anyone who wanted him to make something easy and generic, he'd rather go full goblin mode.
So I think a solid 7/10 is where I'll settle for BB. It takes a while to find it's footing but once it does it's a beautiful mess. And hey, this movie did pretty good, so I think that sends Hollywood a clear message: more spooky puppet creature movies. At LEAST one a year. I think it's about time for Gremlins 3, Joe Dante is still alive! Give that man another blank check!
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