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kayleeonigiri
Reviews
Baburu (2022)
Stunning animation, story is lacking
I'll be going into a lot of detail about the movie and not a general overview.
It's a modernized version of "The Little Mermaid" with a post-apocalyptic feel. The animation and visuals are absolutely stunning and beautiful, so your eyes will definitely be satisfied. The music is also amazing and at first glance the climax and setting are impressive. No character is dislikeable and the main character has a solid backstory that moved me quite a bit. However, there were multiple issues that made me think this movie was mediocre at best.
All the characters, even the main character and his love interest, were incredibly bland. Although I did say the main character had a solid backstory, that's about it. He doesn't show an impressive change and even his moments of spotlight didn't seem impressive.
The love interest has a cute personality and seems mysteriously cool at first, but the reveal to who she really is doesn't really feel all that astonishing. It was definitely unexpected, but felt pretty boring. Her and the reason for the floating bubbles in the air had no real good reason, just a ton of magic that didn't make sense.
Not to mention, the side characters don't get as much spotlight as I had hoped, leaving them to be just as dry as our main characters, though they are still likeable.
The biggest issue I found with this movie was how it was directed. While the visuals and shots were amazing, they were really boring. They made the parkour, which was a main part of the story, feel as plain was walking, with no unique shots to show how dynamic their moves were. The characters also lacked expressions as they did parkour and it is hard to see how it's special and cool. All they did was jump and use their hands to direct themselves and push off of floating debris. No angles. No special shots. Just bobbing up and down. This was the most disappointing part for me.
Lastly, the plot. The general summary Netflix provided didn't spark my interest at all, and the movie didn't do much justice for it. The setting lacked action and suspense despite being about parkour. The antagonists were also boring, with no reason to really hate them since there isn't much detail or flashbacks. The main character's development as alright by the climax, but the climax itself was just confusing and so many parts of the story felt out of place. A lot of the plot felt forced as well.
Overall, this movie should've been split into episodes and extended. They had so many characters who were bland and needed their spotlight. The plot doesn't flow naturally and the parkour needed more emotion and movement.
The movie was boring, and that basically sums up everything I just said. Visuals were nice, story needs work. If you prefer visuals and light stories over deeper and longer works than this movie would be a great watch. If you're the opposite, this isn't worth the watch.
This is my first ever movie review. I just really wanted to say something since I felt this movie was dry yet I wasn't sure how to describe it. My friends like it a lot and I don't want to ruin the mood so I might as well share my opinion here. Have a good day or night and have fun watching your movies.