First Wall*E "Review"

From Ain't It Cool

About that AICN WALL*E Screening Tonight...

Hey folks, Harry here... I can't tell you about arguably the best film Walt Disney has ever had its name on - and I certainly can't go into how it is one of the absolute best hard science fiction films made in my adult life - and I won't be able to go on and on about how it's an incredible work of speculative future mythology the likes of which, I've never seen... whilst also being wildly entertaining and thought-provoking to literally all ages. I can't go into any of that, because I am under Embargo till the day of release. And the host of reviews that are coming in from our screening tonight... well, they're Embargoed right now too... even though they say things like:

"Masterpiece. That's it. That's truth in one word. WALL*E is a masterpiece. It tells its story with economy, with little dialogue, but there is no question what is going on. It's like a Buster Keaton silent film mixed with the wonder of the original STAR WARS and the morals of the best fables, except this moral is an imperative one, and one to which we must pay attention. It's emotional, but not overly so. For children, it is instantly accessible, maybe more so than a film with more dialogue, because it's from the character's actions that the story is propelled. WALL*E and EVE and the rest of the robots are unique characters and they do it with deeds, not words." - Nordling

and
"This film is gorgeous. The scenes in the trailer don't even approach how amazingly beautiful the film is. I teared up three times during the movie. Twice was due to the story, but one time was just from how amazingly unbelievably gorgeous the film is. And these were scenes I'd seen before at BNAT! Some of them are even in the trailers I've seen dozens of times! They were still amazing enough that I cried just from how beautiful they were." - The Abstruse One

and
"Thanks to Pixar, I have no choice but to go into wild, unrestrained
hyperbole regarding their new film, the animated sci-fi adventure love
story titled Wall-E. Ready? Here we go.
Visionary. Emotional. Fantastic. A Must-See. A Thrill Ride. Romantic.
Eye-Popping. Incredible. Instant Classic. The best Pixar film ever
made. Let that sink in for a minute.

The best. THE. BEST." - John Gholson

However - what I can tell you about was the audience reaction tonight. I had about 15 Families with kids there tonight. The rest of the audience was pretty hardcore science fiction geeks ages ranging from their twenties to their sixties. People that love their BLADE RUNNER, SILENT RUNNING, ROBOCOP, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, STAR WARS & 2001 fans. I had folks that grew up with The Next Generation, Babylon 5, SeaQuest DSV and that sort of stuff. There were also folks that loved ASTRO BOY, GIGANTOR, TOBOR THE EIGHTMAN, Then there were far more of the audience that were card carrying passionate lovers of Asimov, Heinlein, Gibson, Phillip K. Dick, Ellison and the other classic authors of speculative fiction and science fiction. We had a man working on the next generation of Hybrid cars for a major automotive company - that drove 9 hours from a secret location. I had a group of 5 friends that work at NASA. And then of course I had a few Pixar mega-geeks. But they were in the minority.
I can't tell you about the audience during the film... for me, I had only the screen and my own consciousness... which was some 700 years into the future. But when the movie ended there was thunderous applause. Myself - there were at least 6 moments of applause throughout the film. But then the credits ran... and the end credits are kinda masterful in their own rite - and after all the credits ran... after the last frame in the gate ran through... the audience thunderously applauded again - and in a daze I turned around to see 220 people in their seats - stunned. Dazed. Goofy grins, slack jaws and utterly flabbergasted - because nothing they saw in trailers, nothing from the posters and all the "cute" bits with WALL*E prepared them for just how awe-inspiring and brilliant the film that had just played... played. Afterwards, kids were playing like WALL*E and adults were having high-minded conversations about the science fiction, mythological elements and the romance. Their faces were windswepted and when everyone walked out of the theater - we pretty much all looked up at the sky with wonder.