Wall-E

"Presto" the animated short before "Wall-E" was a much more entertaining piece of entertainment than the main attraction, unfortunately.

It's weird to be out of sorts with the positive critical response to Wall-E. I enjoyed the look of the film, the CGI was breathtaking throughout the film (Hell, Roger Deakin was brought in for lighting and cinematography input), but, and it's a big BUT, I just didn't get invested in any of the characters to give a damn about the remaining 2/3 of the film after Wall-E and Eve's introductions.

I think I just couldn't handle all the cute gags and bits designed to induce laughter and "aww..." in youngsters, it just got a little too much for me. The film itself just couldn't quite sustain my interest as it turned into more of a homage of 2001 in the latter part of the film, even if it kept trying to dance around its environmental/consumerism message by pouring on all the cute sight gags and tugging at heartstrings every 30 seconds.

I may try to see it once more, to see if it plays better on a second viewing, but I suspect that's being very optimistic.

I give it 2.75 stars or a grade of B- (mainly for the visuals, as the story and characters just didn't quite do it for me).