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Elemental Review Thread - (75% RT Certified Fresh, 59 MC)

KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

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Oct 27, 2017
17,138
elemental-1024x576.jpg

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Elemental just closed out Cannes and reviews are starting to pop up online. I'll update the thread with Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic Scores when they go up.

Rotten Tomatoes: 75% (178 reviews) Certified Fresh
Elemental may not satisfy as fully as the greatest Pixar pictures, but it remains a solid story told with dazzling visual flair.
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Metacritic: 59 (40 Reviews)

Indiewire: Pixar's Latest Offers Mixed Immigrant Metaphors and a Genuine Romance (B)

Radio Times: Not top-tier Pixar, but it's plenty heartfelt (3/5)

Evening Standard: Pixar closes the festival with a hotly anticipated damp squib (2/5)

Variety: A Hothead and a Water-Boy Fall for One Another in Pixar's Overcomplicated Rom-Com (No Score)

Deadline: New Pixar Animation Is Visually Splendid, But Swamped In Syrupy Sentiment (No Score)

Total Film: Pixar's latest is sweet-natured but lacks depth (3/5)

Next Best Picture: "Elemental" will warm your heart and move you to tears. (8/10)

UPDATE: Top Critic reviews not from Cannes

Seattle Times: It's a perfectly sweet tale, and its message of different cultures connecting is a resonant and timely one. (2.5/4)

Washington Post: Cute, kind of clever and oh, so topical. (2.5/4)

Reel Views: I found Elemental to be endearing. (3/4)

Slate: It's dispiriting to see a movie that so clearly represents all that Pixar once did better than anyone else turn out so middle-of-the-road. (No Score, Rotten)

Associated Press: So where does it slide into the Pixar canon? Probably in the lower half. But Elemental -- sincere and clever, with a splash of dazzle -- comes closer to rekindling some of the old Pixar magic than some recent entries. (2.5/4)


Looking like a mixed response at the moment. Got a 5 minutes standing ovation overall from Cannes.

Update: As general reviews are starting to come in, Response has gotten better. I expect this to settle somewhere in the 70s in the end.
 
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FTF

FTF

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Oct 28, 2017
30,134
New York
Yeah prob be like a mid 70s RT rating based on early reactions. So very meh and will not do well at the box office.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

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Oct 25, 2017
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its just looks so... bland

like even Soul got me interested before it hit
 
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KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,138
FTF said:
Yeah prob be like a mid 70s RT rating based on early reactions. So very meh and will not do well at the box office.
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If this was releasing on it's own later in the year, it would probably do fine with reviews like this.

The problem is it's releasing 2 weeks after the sequel to Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse.
 
CloseTalker

CloseTalker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
34,537
Sounds like it'll be on the weaker side of Pixar's output. They need to take some time and rethink the films they make, they now feel well and truly behind the curve while other studios are moving animated films into much more interesting directions.
 
MadLaughter

MadLaughter

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,769
I saw the trailer for this and then was genuinely surprised when it turned out to be a pixar movie, it looked so friggin bland.
 
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KillstealWolf

KillstealWolf

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Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
17,138
Servbot24 said:
As well it should, Soul is fucking fantastic
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We live in the timeline where Soul, Luca and Turning Red all got sent to Disney+ whilst Onward and Lightyear got cinema releases.

I want to be in the timeline where that was the other way around.

mrmickfran said:
And the same DAY as Flash
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Flash isn't looking too hot on the presales either. It's currently estimated at a $70m opening, that's the same numbers Black Adam opened to.
 
Ceerious

Ceerious

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,582
Asian
What's with the half-smug, half-shy expression that has been widely adopted by animated characters anyway? 3D animation has been obsessed with this for the past 20 years. It had become so formulaic that it no longer showed the character.
 
vixolus

vixolus

Prophet of Truth
Member
Sep 22, 2020
62,121
lmao some tweet impressions went up with some positive reviews for Elemental so naturally the reactionaries jump the gun and say "huh I thought Animation Twitter was saying this movie was gonna be terrible but it's actually amazing who would have thought" 🤡

I don't really care for this movie much. I might watch it on D+ eventually, idk. But why are people still taking twitter impressions seriously and also not just waiting for more before confirming their priors lol

edit: 56 on MC
 
makonero

makonero

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,527
Honestly the trailer looks like a parody of Pixar movies. Just literally the same movie we've seen a dozen times repackaged.

I really hope there's a Pixar renaissance with some new blood and new ideas
 
Kalor

Kalor

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Oct 25, 2017
20,248
Sounds like an ok movie but not a particularly interesting one, which it seemed based on the trailers. Shame that the weakest of Pixars recent work have been the ones to hit the cinemas.
 
Big Powder

Big Powder

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,307
I still really like Pixar, but I have felt like they've made the same movie over and over for a while now (with an occasional outlier, but it's not really enough given that they keep returning to the formula). It's a good movie to make over and over for sure, and I still usually have something great to take from it each time, but they have to break out of this pattern of "character has personal problem, stumbles into supernatural world and has to figure that out while also solving their personal problem". It works GREAT for kids movies, but it's to a point where I feel like I can predict these movies and what is going to happen from the poster! I know they're more creative than this... I used to be super excited for every Pixar movie, then they hit kind of a lull in the early to mid 10s, but now they're on a streak that's unfortunately losing momentum for me given that it is so repetitive.

That being said, Coco and Soul are two of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Coco in particular is just incredible. Never a dry eye in the house when it's put on.
 
SeanM

SeanM

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,560
USA
Elemental feels like a Pixar film created by a "what if elements had feelings?" ChatGPT prompt.

The story is cliche, the character and world designs seem bland, and it all just feels so lazy. The fire character is named Ember and lives in Fire Town, like c'mon Pixar you can try harder than that.
 

Randomly Generated

Member
Oct 27, 2017
17,642
Big Powder said:
I still really like Pixar, but I have felt like they've made the same movie over and over for a while now (with an occasional outlier, but it's not really enough given that they keep returning to the formula). It's a good movie to make over and over for sure, and I still usually have something great to take from it each time, but they have to break out of this pattern of "character has personal problem, stumbles into supernatural world and has to figure that out while also solving their personal problem". It works GREAT for kids movies, but it's to a point where I feel like I can predict these movies and what is going to happen from the poster! I know they're more creative than this... I used to be super excited for every Pixar movie, then they hit kind of a lull in the early to mid 10s, but now they're on a streak that's unfortunately losing momentum for me given that it is so repetitive.

That being said, Coco and Soul are two of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Coco in particular is just incredible. Never a dry eye in the house when it's put on.
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This actually does seem to be Pixar trying something different - a romcom. They dabbled with it with Wall-E, kind of, but otherwise it's not a genre they mess with much.
 
Finaj

Finaj

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,527
It's certainly been a depressing time for original, theatrical animation. I really don't want to see Disney and Pixar permanently in sequel jail.
 
Dyle

Dyle

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The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
31,176
If the movie is about some elements hooking up then I feel like you need to show some of the other combinations. Have an air/water raincloud person, some earth/water lillypad person, an air/earth dandelion person, etc. Then end the credits with their boiling water baby or something. Get wild with it, let them fuck.
 
Shoe

Shoe

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Oct 25, 2017
4,363
Welcome to straight-to-Disney+ and occasional theatrical sequel hell, Pixar
 
vixolus

vixolus

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Sep 22, 2020
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I'm not really getting the "PIXAR fell off" doom type takes because most of their output since 2017 has been solid. Coco, Toy Story 4, Onward, Soul, Luca, and Turning Red are all quite good imo. Onward the weakest out of that bunch. For their weaker output, Lightyear I thought was better than I expected though my expectations were pretty low. I think it was beautifully shot and had some really great sequences and use of aspect ratio switch ups during space flight vs regular shots. Incredibles 2 was similarly beautiful but a huge disappointment. They've had more hits than misses in the past ~5 years...
 
Netherscourge

Netherscourge

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,839
KillstealWolf said:
elemental-1024x576.jpg

​
Elemental just closed out Cannes and reviews are starting to pop up online. I'll update the thread with Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic Scores when they go up.

Indiewire: Pixar's Latest Offers Mixed Immigrant Metaphors and a Genuine Romance (B)

Radio Times: Not top-tier Pixar, but it's plenty heartfelt (3/5)

Evening Standard: Pixar closes the festival with a hotly anticipated damp squib (2/5)

Variety: A Hothead and a Water-Boy Fall for One Another in Pixar's Overcomplicated Rom-Com (No Score)

Deadline: New Pixar Animation Is Visually Splendid, But Swamped In Syrupy Sentiment (No Score)

Total Film: Pixar's latest is sweet-natured but lacks depth (3/5)

Next Best Picture: "Elemental" will warm your heart and move you to tears. (8/10)


Looking like a mixed response at the moment. Got a 5 minutes standing ovation overall from Cannes.
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The standing ovation curse in effect.
 
PeakPointMatrix

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,868
I've never seen a trailer composed almost entirely of dad jokes. "So those guys, yeah they have their heads in the clouds, oh these guys are a little hot headed, oh but these earth people are a little seedy.."


Arrhhhgghg
 
El Bombastico

El Bombastico

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
36,668
PeakPointMatrix said:
I've never seen a trailer composed almost entirely of dad jokes. "So those guys, yeah they have their heads in the clouds, oh these guys are a little hot headed, oh but these earth people are a little seedy.."


Arrhhhgghg
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Its what I hate about modern Pixar, their Golden Age films were made to be enjoyed by everyone. This and other recent films feel like they were made only for little kids.
 
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