Sometimes I feel glad that I watched The Last Airbender. Today is one of those days. I just came back home from another movie screening today. Alpha and Omega. And no, I cannot recommend it to you. It is not a very good film. I don’t even know how the studio managed to secure the voice actors for this terrible movie. If it weren’t for the French turkey, English duck and vegetarian wolves who provided the most laugh out loud moments in the movie, there is nothing else to look forward to. But no matter how bad it was, it is still miles ahead of The Last Airbender- probably the worse movie I’ve seen in my life (so far). It is my benchmark for how bad movies can be, and no Alpha and Omega doesn’t go anywhere near that sorry excuse for a movie. I could go on about TLA, but this review isn’t about it. It might make you want to go out and watch it. Trust me, stick with the animated series instead.
Alpha and Omega isn’t epic. It isn’t “pawesome” like the poster claims. Hell, it isn’t even good. A flat storyline that’s been over done (Madagascar 2, Bolt anyone?) about two wolves trying to find their way home after being captured and released in a park to procreate. It feels like whoever was involved in making the movie weren’t even trying. “Alright guys, we just got this story and an all-star cast. Let’s sub it to some animation studio, and release it when it’s done.” Honestly, that’s what it felt like.
Right from the start, I had one thing to say about the movie- it is UGLY. The main characters don’t look appealing, the animation is horrible, the fur/hair rendering- looks like something done in 3D games rendered 15 years ago. Animation studios have been doing it right for a long time, you would expect something 2010 to at least look good even if it has a sub-par storyline. Nope. Nothing jaw dropping here, there’s nothing even remotely good about the visuals. Not even the backgrounds were done well.
Okay, fine. Maybe the movie was done by a low-budget studio. They didn’t have the resources to make the movie beautiful. Understood. But the animation? You don’t need a high-budget to make the characters act believably. The acting was stiff, unconvincing, and basically everything you don’t want to see in an animated movie. Characters touching each other didn’t even look like they were touching, expressions were pretty bland, nothing over the top. Objects felt like they weren’t interacting with the background properly, there was sliding and weightlessness- ugh. Where’s the quality control? Besides the random gags popping up once in a while, there was nothing to look forward to in the show.
I felt glad when the movie was over, it felt way too long. Not a good sign when you’re in a movie wondering what time it’s going to end. What surprised me though was the credits. They showed the concept art for the characters in the movie and man, the hand drawn sketches were beautiful. They looked lively and were capable of pulling off believable expressions. What happened there? Something must have went wrong during the transition from paper to the model rigging stage. Hell, they didn’t even need to do the movie in 3D. If it was a 2D animated movie, I’m sure it would’ve been much better (assuming they spent time on animation instead of figuring out how rigs work- because that’s what their 3D animation felt like).
Overall, this movie isn’t worth the money you spend on the ticket. Hell, I don’t think it’s even worth downloading. Another one to forget, and maybe catch on TV one day when you’re channel surfing because you have absolutely nothing else to watch. Even then I would just read a book. Or jerk off. I really can’t recommend this movie to anybody. There’s just so many other movies that have done this way better and deserve repeated viewings. 2/10.