Heavily expository dialog, slow pacing, odd framing of scenes--why so many shots from behind when characters are speaking?--and clumsy fight choreography are just some of the factors that prevented me from enjoying the first two episodes of a show I was eagerly anticipating. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I prefer the admittedly flawed film. Even the SFX in the film seemed better, and to check my memory, I rewatched the film after struggling to stay awake during the Disney+ series, and yes, those effects from 2010 survive the comparison. The early encounter with the minotaur, for example, feels more kinetic and dangerous in the film, while the TV version fails to convince that the adolescent Percy could in any way survive the encounter.
Reviews
2 Reviews
Moxie
(I) (2021)
Tepid adaptation
16 March 2022
Unfortunately, this adaptation fails its source material, Jennifer Mathieu's wonderful novel, on almost every point, taking the fierce riot grrrl heart of the story and turning it into a half-hearted and confused bleat of a movie. Why is the principal suddenly a woman instead of a man, blunting the novel's full-throated condemnation of patriarchy and misogyny? Why is there an unfunny, running bit about the high school mascot inserted into the story, to no good effect? Why is the love-story subplot from the book brought into the foreground, shoving aside and minimizing so much of Vivian's arc from "dutiful, meek student" to "righteously angry agent of change? And so forth. A missed opportunity.
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