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Gulliver (Jack Black) towers over the tiny citizens of Lilliput in “Gulliver’s Travels.” |
I feel a little guilty savaging such a good-natured mess as “Gulliver’s Travels.”
I’ll have to get over it.
This special effects adventure looks so dark and fuzzy, 2 of its 3-Ds deserted the movie.
The technical craftsmanship is so shoddy that the digital components look faker than fake, and giant Jack Black’s eyes aren’t always in alignment with the eyes of the tinier characters he’s supposedly talking to.
The script, a superficial reinvention of Jonathan Swift’s classic 1726 novel (which did not, I recall, include a “Transformers” character), reduces the dialogue to cartoon level then loads it up with lame “awesome” clichés, as in “They threw me an awesome party!” and “You are the president of awesome!”
The main characters constantly flash us the “thumbs-up” gesture to convince us we’re watching a Roger Ebert-approved movie. But I didn’t fall for that, because Ebert was sitting in front of me at the screening Monday night.
Rob Letterman’s “Gulliver’s Travels” fails at expanding the cinematic art form. But to be fair, Letterman simply wants to direct a fun and engaging motion picture.
Yet, he fails at that, too. (Read more…)