Review of Brave (2012) by Darkwarrior — 06 Sep 2012

BRAVE is nothing short of an EPIC FAIL.

I gotta give it to Pixar: even when they screw up, they do it big time. There is no saving this movie, and I have a hard time understanding all the good comments when it's so evident it misses all but the most important spots. Though visually impressive, I've hated it in a way I never expected, even more so because I've loved most of the previous Pixar movies, and respected those I didn't. Why? Because time and again, Pixar has always managed to impress me not just with its technical excellency, but most of all with the profound originality of its plots, the charisma of its characters and the beautifully detailed and rich atmosphere of its movies. There is nothing of that here! The characters are completely flat, unbelievable cliches, and Merida itself is the worst of them all, I've stopped tolerating her after like 5 minutes. The movie, more or less, manages to hold itself together in the first part, but it literally commits suicide in the first ten minutes of the second part and from that moment it's a long and painful downfall to the worst Disney story templates. When the script should capitalize on dramatic moments, it trips over itself with several sequences of bad comedy which, other than not funny, are downright irritating. The villain is virtually non-existent and the whole point of the story resolves in a pesky, predictable mother-daughter relationship renewal. The movie also suffers a lot from the celtic atmosphere remaining largely unexploited. Long story short: weak story, nonexistent characters and predictable outcome made this movie a miserable product way under the expectations. It could have been a great movie if only it had been developed more seriously.