Review of Delgo (2008) by Drew H — 20 Jul 2010

My curiosity was killing me when it came to the biggest box office bomb of all time in terms of number of people who saw it. when released, this film averaged less than two viewers per screening and was ditched from theaters after a week, making 8,000 dollars total. several people went bankrupt because of this film, which shelved its marketing costs when it ran out of money. I think with your typical animated push it would probably have made 30-40 million overall but still would have been a loss.

Now to the actual product. is it really that bad? no, it is not. the critics trashed the quality of animation but I had no problem with that. the film also talks about such things as imperialism and racial politics, albeit in very broad strokes fit for youngsters. it is also pretty fast-paced, so I disagree with the critical complaint that it was boring. I found some characters extremely imaginative and entertaining. but two things hurt the movie, aside from the common "unoriginal" complaint (the film is very archetypal and eerily similar to avatar in a few ways). one is the constant wisecracking especially during action sequences. think the amount of wisecracking in the mummy sequels. now triple it. and have chris kattan, freddie prinze junior and anne bancroft doing it instead of brendan frazier and rachel weisz, and having it be incredibly clean cut. not that appealing. the second thing is the lack of a satisfying climax in the final battle, which is moreso referenced than depicted. the final showdown of hero vs. villian is anti-climactic and delayed by several jokes. and then the ending is package wrapped very distastefully as if the producers had run out of money (which I am pretty sure is exactly the case). this film suffers the unfortunate fate of dropping off a cliff in terms of quality during the final ten minutes. before the end, I was thinking 2.5, maybe even three. but the ending really brings it down.

In summary, delgo is not the most horrible movie ever although stephen colbert may designate it so by market performance. however, it is a less than average animated family adventure that is moreso the standard fare for an eight year old to pass a weekend at grandma's on tv than something the family should pay money to see at the movies (or rent).