"Gnomeo and Juliet" Review

    Some people like surprises. Some people don't I personally think that (and I think most people would agree with) good surprises are, well, good. And that goes especially for movies. This past year movies like Kung Fu Panda 2, Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Super 8 can all contest to that fact. But, will the ridiculous Gnomeo and Juliet surprise us. Let's find out.

    The film follows Gnomeo, (James McAvoy) a member of the "Blue" clan of gnomes that constantly fued with the neighboring "Red" clan. He falls for Juliet (Emily Blunt), the daughter of the Red leader and you know the rest. The leads are very good in their roles and are clearly having fun with their parts. In fact, that what really is fun about this movie. The whole thing is having fun and is poking fun at itself.
    The rest of the cast does a fine job as well. Michael Caine and Maggie Smith play the Red and Blue leaders. Ashley jensen play Nanette, a pretty perfect representation of the original Romeo and Juliet's nurse. Matt Lucas and Jim Cummings also star. Overall, the only one that seems to have phoned it in is Jason Statham, who plays Tybalt. He just is a generic evil movie villain. Wished they had done more with the character.

                                                          Stealth at it's finest.

    The story is exactly what you wpuld expect from a Romeo and Juliet adaptation, which is unfortunately the film's weakest point. It takes very little risk with the material. Many people might pass this off as a "kiddie-fied" version of the original, but it's actually a pretty close adaptation. Now, I don't think this next part is a spoiler becuase you probably could have guessed this by know, but SPOILER ALERT anyway. Gnoemo and Juliet of course do not die at the end. It is of course a children's movie. This is really the only moment the movie greatly diverges from the original text. However, it does poke fun at this fact as, at one point, Gnomeo meets a Willaim Shakespeare statue (Patrick Stewart) who remarks at how similar this two stories are. Gnomeo, upon hearing the original story's ending, might a note not to let this happen to his story. It's surprisingly meta for a film like this and yet it actually work fairly well.
    In fact, it's the humor that save Gnomeo and Juliet from total failure. It is very charming and clever and there were some moments I was honestly laughing out loud. The movie does have it's fair share of lame gags and puns. Lots of puns. But, there is actually a lot here that will please both kids and adults.

                 "You know what they say about people with big hats. They have big hats."

    In the end, Gnomeo and Juliet does not hit it out of the park, but is still was fun to watch. the movie is funny, being both charming and clever. the cast is great and the animation is well done. The movie does, however, take too few risks and ends up cliched because of it. Overall, Gnomeo and Juliet is 4 out of 6.

See you later.