My Movie Review on The Star (2017) · 9:00pm Jul 21st, 2019
What's up, people?
I'm back with another film review. This one, however, is the start of what I'd like to call my "Christmas in July Jamboree".
You see, around last Christmas, there were some films based on the holiday that I meant to review, but didn't get around to due to lack of time. So, I thought that I could play around with the 'Christmas in July' concept by posting some reviews on Christmas films this month.
Anyway...
Today, I'll be making my debut of my "Christmas in July Jamboree" by reviewing "The Star (2017)".
Here's the summary of it:
Taking place in the B.C. times, this story follows the adventure of a small but brave donkey, whose best friend is a wisecracking dove named Dave.
One day, however, after the donkey manages to escape the custody of an abusive miller, he stumbles across a kind human couple named Mary and Joseph, who take him in and name him Boaz, or Bo for short.
During that time, Mary is pregnant with Jesus, a child who is bestowed to her by God to be humanity's new king and savior. When the malicious King Herod discovers this development, he sends his best hunter out to find Mary, with the orders to killer her and the baby.
With a determined hunter after her, it's up to Bo, Dave, and the friends they make along the way to keep Mary and the baby safe?
Can they succeed? Or will they fail?
I must confess, around the time this movie was coming out, I had little to no interest in seeing it because it didn't look all that great. However, my eldest sister, her husband, and their daughters were telling me how enjoyable they thought it was, so, I decided to see it.
I saw it one time with my nieces during the Christmas season, and a second time around the beginning of July, which was when I had clearer and more detailed thoughts about it.
To be honest, this movie had quite a mix of flaws and greats.
The film's animation was definitely stunning. It may not have the kind of flavor as, say, Pixar or Dreamworks, but...it was able to capture a nicely done biblical feel, like you're actually in the times of the Bible. A special credit that I'd like to give is to director Timothy Reckart and his animation team, who were particularly able to cook up the perfect visualization and style for a story revolving around the Bible.
The music by John Paesano was melodious. For someone working on a rather small film, he certainly knew how to make big music. The contributions from the various music artists, including Mariah Carey, Yolanda Adams, and Pentatonix, were likewise excellent. They gave the music a nicely done emotional strength, and that's something I highly commend.
The rest of the film's aspects, however, were a mix of both positive and negative.
The story was something that I found to be really sweet and heartfelt, with a great moral that teaches that the greatest place to be in is with those you love and who love you in return. However, as a story that involves the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I find its focus on talking animals to be a lot more questionable than fun, and I can't help but wonder why it couldn't focus on just Mary and Joseph.
The comedy aspect of the film was also lackluster at the most, meaning that many of them were rather flat and annoying. There are some jokes that stand out here and there in terms of being funny, but they were mostly chuckle-worthy. As much as I'd like to point out examples of what jokes were good or bad, I feel that it's best to find out for yourself if you'd like.
Finally, it all comes down to the voice acting, casting, characters, and character development.
The people who played the human characters were all-out terrific, the particular standouts being Zachary Levi as Joseph, Gina Rodriguez as Mary, and Christopher Plummer as King Herod (the latter whom I wished had gotten more screen time). Each performer portrayed their characters with excellent emotion and heart, even having a lot of fantastic dialogue. Mary and Joseph were so well developed in this movie, each of them being especially driven with coming to terms with their newfound roles.
The performances of the people playing the animals, however, as well as their characters, are ones that I can't help but feel divided on in terms of who was great and who wasn't.
In my opinion, the worst of the performances came from that of Tracy Morgan as Felix the Camel and Gabriel Iglesias as Rufus the Dog. The prime problem was that their comedic-timings were more annoying than funny, and they often seemed to milk it, pushing it to the point of where they made their performances poor.
The camel trio, consisting of Felix, Cyrus, and Deborah weren't really even much of a tolerable focus. With a few exceptions, the chemistry and comedic-gags used with the characters were far from fun. Additionally, they had a large lack of character development.
I would say that Keegan-Michael Key and his character of Dave the Dove were also not among the best elements of the film. However, unlike the camels, Dave actually had a lot more heart and development. Key also did a fine job at giving his character a personality and comedic side, while also giving his character heart.
The best performances in terms of animal characters, to me, were Ving Rhames as Thaddeus, and Steven Yeun as Bo. Despite Thaddeus being a wolf, Rhames gave his character a remarkable intimidating presence through his voice alone, which was enough to make the species-inconsistency passable; Yeun's performance as Bo was pretty lovable, incorporating enough heart and innocence to make his character a grappling focus.
Throughout the movie, Bo was even able to prove himself as the best of the animal characters, his development coming from discovering what his role in life was and finding that being with those you care for is better than doing something like "Being with the Royal Caravan".
In the end, "The Star" is a sweet film, but its countless setbacks make it far from impeccable.
So, I rate "The Star" 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.
This sounds kind of interesting. I might watch it eventually.
I remember when I saw the posters for this movie, and all I kept thinking was "Wow. Bold move in this day and age."
I wasn't sure how to feel about that thought.
I actually was planning on giving it a look when it came out, but I got outvoted and we ended up going to watch Coco instead.
Amazing christmas movie told from a whole new perspective! Great film 4 out of 5 stars!