The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

In theory, there is such as a thing as a “popcorn flick.” To my knowledge, this is a movie that you put on because there’s nothing else to do, and you enjoy your popcorn and watch. You aren’t challenged, or even necessarily engaged in any way, but you watch it, and it doesn’t offend, and that’s fine.

That’s basically what Paul is.

I watched Paul, and that was fine. There were some laughs, and some chuckles. I didn’t want to claw my eyes out. It then ended, and it left no impression on me, nor any need to ever see it again.

If there’s one thing the movie was, the term “formulaic” would be completely accurate. Everyone in the story was simply there to fill a slot in the story. Two friends are there because you’re supposed to have buddies on an adventure, but one is designated to fall in love, and here comes female character to fall in love with and serve no other purpose, and so on and so forth.
Seriously, I can sit here and try to think of any actual character traits that the main characters had, and I would totally fail. They were not characters, but simply placeholders which existed to fill in slots in jokes. These jokes are the exact jokes you would expect from a movie about a wise-cracking alien. That doesn’t mean they aren’t funny sometimes, but they certainly aren’t unexpected.

I guess what I’m saying is, basically, look at the elevator pitch for the movie. Imagine the checklist such a movie must have. If you would like to see someone methodically checking off everything on that list without any twists, turns, or derivation, then you may enjoy Paul.

On the way back from the theater, Essner and I had a discussion about formula and how sick we were of it. I think I was less sick of it than him, but regardless, we both agreed that this kind of movie is not really worth our time anymore. He was being much harder on it than me. I feel it’s harmless, though nothing I will ever need to see again, whereas he seemed to find it very offensive, or at the very least bad. When I got back to Tweetdeck after the film I was greeted with this article which seemed to offer a potential interpretation on why we were reacting this way and echoed several of the points Essner was making about how the shows he watched as a child, which were re-purposing plots and pop culture he was not old enough for yet, made it so that when he reached the age where such things could be consumed, he already knew how they were going to turn out and there were no surprises. All this really seemed relevant as I really thought about the film and what it meant about film-making as a whole. There will always be people who enjoy formula and not being surprised. Hell, I really enjoy a formulaic children’s show about the power of friendship now and again.

But anyway, I guess I was talking about Paul. Paul is a movie. It has a joke or two. Seth Rogan is a wise-cracking alien who says the word “fuck.” You know what you’re getting into if you see it.