"The Life Aquatic" review (many spoilers)

It was good. Not great (immediately anyways) but it was good. Here are my major criticisms (which I should preface by saying I missed the first five minutes or so of the movie).

At times, I felt like I was watching Royal Tenenbaum played by an actor who was ill-equipped to be playing Royal Tenenbaum. Now I love Bill Murray more than anyone, but there’s a reason he didn’t play Royal Tenenbaum. He isn’t right for the part. I think he did a fine job as Steve Zissou, but sometimes, the character just seemed a bit off, like it was half what Steve Zissou should have been or how I pictured him, like the “closet gay” line. That’s a Royal line if I’ve ever heard one and it just sounded odd coming out of Zissou.

Along the same lines, I just thought there were problems with the characterizations in general. Like “The Royal Tenenbaums,” this one felt like Wes was trying to cram too much into one little movie. Maybe it’s just because I took the “closet gay” line to be a funny throwaway, but when Jeff Goldblum said he was “half queer” and started philosophizing with Zissou about being husbands, it seemed like it just came out of nowhere. A lot of the movie seemed like that, sometimes it just seemed like characters were being crammed into situations without being fully developed or into situations that didn’t make sense with their characters.

I thought the shootout scenes were pretty ridiculous, too. I thought the hijacking scene was going to be a dream or something. It was just outrageous.

I really love how Anderson treats death though. The plane crash scene was just stunning, with the waves lapping up against the camera then a few drops of blood splashing up then the ocean just turning red. Wow. But for whatever reason, I wasn’t as moved by Ned’s death as I was by Ritchie’s suicide attempt in “The Royal Tenenbaums.” I don’t know why exactly.

All in all, I’d like to see it again. I was worried it was going to be worse with some of the reviews it’s been getting, so I’m pleasantly surprised. But where was Kumar?