I like original movies. This is a fairly original family fantasy movie.
Starting off strong, the movie seemed to follow in the footsteps of 'The Adjustment Bureau' (2011), with a bureaucratic and somewhat supernatural business entity acting in the shadows, to alter fate and meddle in the romantic affairs of humans. We got the impression that luck and coincidence were going to play a strong theme. Then in short order it changed into a movie about magic and goblins, more akin to Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts, and with perhaps some absurd elements from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (what really is a stapler, anyway?). But the luck and coincidence aspect seems to fall away, and we don't see too much more of the meddling.
The character motivations were a little muddled; for example the insufferable and drab female colleague quickly turns into the soft and delicate love interest who needs saving. By the end of the second act the main guy is talking about building a house near the sea and living together... a bit soon, is it not?
The main hero goes from not knowing about magic, to barely reacting when he's introduced to magic, to becoming a full-blown uber-magician with a unique power, but there's no arc or struggles in getting there... and no explanation as to why... it just happens. The closest thing he gets to a lesson in magic is a guy telling him to hover his hand over a map without touching it, then pretty instantly he feels the magic. Makes you really wonder how it's possible he's not discovered his latent gift already. But then questions and threads raised in the opening scenes about luck, coincidence and pattern recognition were not returned to.
The McGuffin in this case was a door which transforms into a specific non-door object so as to be difficult to find. I'm not sure if the door is even necessary; if I'm not mistaken I think in this universe it's not the only way to get to where they're going. The door's powers were exploited a bit, like in the movie Looper (2012) to go to Everest, to Giza, and main guy and Love Interest return a few times to that beach.
Later on, we see all the Goblins, and everything starts to feel so small. This universe they've created consists of one office headquarters, a dark hall of doors, a bank and an underground room. We thought we'd be introduced to a whole new world of lore but by the end it still feels like the universe they've created is only local.
I would have much preferred if the goblins were never shown, and the magic were more subtle, and the universe had better world-building, and the plot were more like The Adjustment Bureau. Is this based on a book? Did the author change after the opening chapters?
Starting off strong, the movie seemed to follow in the footsteps of 'The Adjustment Bureau' (2011), with a bureaucratic and somewhat supernatural business entity acting in the shadows, to alter fate and meddle in the romantic affairs of humans. We got the impression that luck and coincidence were going to play a strong theme. Then in short order it changed into a movie about magic and goblins, more akin to Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts, and with perhaps some absurd elements from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (what really is a stapler, anyway?). But the luck and coincidence aspect seems to fall away, and we don't see too much more of the meddling.
The character motivations were a little muddled; for example the insufferable and drab female colleague quickly turns into the soft and delicate love interest who needs saving. By the end of the second act the main guy is talking about building a house near the sea and living together... a bit soon, is it not?
The main hero goes from not knowing about magic, to barely reacting when he's introduced to magic, to becoming a full-blown uber-magician with a unique power, but there's no arc or struggles in getting there... and no explanation as to why... it just happens. The closest thing he gets to a lesson in magic is a guy telling him to hover his hand over a map without touching it, then pretty instantly he feels the magic. Makes you really wonder how it's possible he's not discovered his latent gift already. But then questions and threads raised in the opening scenes about luck, coincidence and pattern recognition were not returned to.
The McGuffin in this case was a door which transforms into a specific non-door object so as to be difficult to find. I'm not sure if the door is even necessary; if I'm not mistaken I think in this universe it's not the only way to get to where they're going. The door's powers were exploited a bit, like in the movie Looper (2012) to go to Everest, to Giza, and main guy and Love Interest return a few times to that beach.
Later on, we see all the Goblins, and everything starts to feel so small. This universe they've created consists of one office headquarters, a dark hall of doors, a bank and an underground room. We thought we'd be introduced to a whole new world of lore but by the end it still feels like the universe they've created is only local.
I would have much preferred if the goblins were never shown, and the magic were more subtle, and the universe had better world-building, and the plot were more like The Adjustment Bureau. Is this based on a book? Did the author change after the opening chapters?