Scooby-Doo Review

Scooby-Doo where are you? That's the classic line from the cartoon TV series that so many generations have grown up on of the iconic cartoon character Scooby-Doo from which the live action 2002 movie Scooby-Doo is based on. Raja Gosnell directs this story from a screenplay by James Gunn which surprisingly brings to life the nostalgia of Scooby-Doo but fails to do much else. Scooby-Doo follows the Mystery Inc. gang as they split up and go their separate ways only to find themselves solving another mystery together two years later when they all receive invitations to Spooky Island. The Mystery Inc. gang is tasked with figuring out why the visitors of its amusement park show up as punk party kids but leave the island all zombified and “civilized” in behavior. The story runs throughout for the rest of the film indulging in ridiculous plot points to give the characters an excuse to go on a wild adventure.


Scooby and Shaggy are the standouts in the cast with Matthew Lillard giving an exceptional performance as Shaggy. The chemistry between the two is phenomenal and really captures the spirit of the cartoon TV series however the rest of the Mystery Inc gang feels miscast. Freddie Prinze Jr does fine as Fred, as well as Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, and Linda Cardellini as Velma yet they never really do great in their roles or bring together an electric chemistry to the screen. If anything their performances feel over the top and bloated. However the cast does bring the best out of the entertainment value in this film with with some laughs throughout and a sense of direction when the plot feels like its going nowhere. The visuals on the island of Spooky Island are frightening and do line up with scary imagery that you would expect the Mystery Inc gang to face. However the monsters are real monsters in the movie contrasting the whole its a guy in a mask factor from the cartoons which makes the opportunity they lost to really call homage to the cartoon so much more tragic. They do reference the cartoon and pay homage in smaller ways which may please die hard fans yet it never really ignites your interest with anything more than on a surface value.

Thematically this film speaks to repairing relationships and not living with spite towards anyone as the whole plot of the gang getting back together for an adventure is reliant on that thread and the twist at the end plays directly into the theme that the script is going for. The characters have to rely on each other in the scary environment they find themselves in which does work entertainingly but the choice of scary imagery in witchcraft was mistaken as it feels inappropriate, not to mention way over the top. The choice to use the actor from Mr. Bean for the leader of the scary amusement park is inspired though it doesn’t help the film when it tries to go for any sense of gravity to the character’s situations. Character development is very surface value in this film even though it does occur and doesn’t change any of the characters, just their feelings towards each other, which is probably what you would expect out of a movie based on a cartoon.


Scooby-Doo excels when it comes to laughs and fun moments with the characters as they are launched into a whirlwind of an adventure as they try to solve a mystery on an island with real monsters. Shaggy and Scooby bring entertainment to the film and present the very best of the strengths of this film, yet the film doesn’t succeed where it should in bringing all the characters alive in a way that respectfully pays homage to the cartoon and operates in a plot that isn’t nonsensical. Scooby-Doo isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination but I think overall it can be an OK film that's fun to watch especially when viewed through the eyes of nostalgia. I am assigning this film a score of 6/10.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Review

Image
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is a timely tale about the dangers of AI and also a deeply personal story bringing Ethan Hunt's origins at the IMF full circle. This marks the third entry in the franchise that Christopher McQuarrie has both written and directed as he manages to bring to the screen an intensely cinematic film with both high physical and emotional stakes.  The story is centered around an ominous artificial intelligence known as "The Entity" which has become sentient and proceeded to infiltrate its way into the computer systems of prominent nations across the world. Thus when Ethan is recruited by Kittridge (his old nemesis from MI: 1 played by Henry Czerny) to retrieve the other part of a key that governments across the world are racing to obtain in order to gain control of the AI, Ethan decides to go rogue against his government to destroy the AI thinking that that much power is too much for anyone to have. Ethan's
Read more

Sound of Freedom Review

Image
"The most powerful person in this world is the storyteller", Jim Caviezel declares in the special post-credits message to the audience at the end of this film. The story he's talking about is that of the millions of children who are put into slavery in today's 21st century society. Directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, Sound of Freedom is based on a true story and follows Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) who saves a boy from ruthless child traffickers and then learning the boy's sister is still captive decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her. This film was made 5 years ago but faced every road block you can think of on it's way to the theatres due to the studios being afraid to release it until Angel Studios stepped in as the distributor. And now that it's finally out there in the world this film sends a resounding and powerful message that God's Children Are Not For Sale. It also operates on another level working as a film itself
Read more

Barbenheimer Double Feature Review

Image
I confess I subjected myself to the Barbenheimer social experiment and survived to tell the tale. These are two radically different movies to be sure, but both have one thing in common: they are well told. Barbie is directed by Greta Gerwig and follows Margot Robbie as the stereotypical Barbie who suffers an existential crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. The result is a movie that is paradoxical in tone as it is as silly and irreverent as it is emotionally nuanced. Oppenheimer is directed by Christoper Nolan and follows Cillian Murphy as Robert J. Oppenheimer in his quest to develop the Atomic Bomb during World War Two. For a three-hour drama that isn’t an action film it moves surprisingly fast and is charged with crackling dialogue, breathtaking cinematography, and psychologically wrenching moments.  Returning to Barbieland, Margot Robbie excels as this seemingly one-note character who underneath has all kinds of depth. She is paired with her Ken (Ryan Go
Read more