Review of Okja (2017) by Brandon S — 29 Nov 2017

While I sat down to what I thought would be a heart-warming, witty satire punctuated by bits of science fiction and some occasional action, despite the fact that the stolen or spirited away cliché has been done to death and there's really nothing new to add to the genre, I did most certainly enjoy the first several minutes of the film for that until the plot and dialogue revealed itself for the patronizing, racially insensitive, senselessly cursing nonsense that has a tendency to pervade films these days, industry or independent.

Stack upon that the usual anti-cruelty propaganda, combined with an Animal Liberation Front (ecoterrorists) whose members themselves ultimately have so little compassion they don't hesitate to dirty their own hands doing the same as their supposed enemies (for instance, the leader himself greatly enjoys an act of mind-numbing animal cruelty part of the way through the film).

It's rather sad since there really are some truly good parts of the film. Moments like these, which unfortunately comprise the vast majority of the movie, simply happen to blot them all out: in effect, they turn the movie into a mockery of itself, a complete and dishonest joke.

The only honest part is that this might just be the largest pile of film feces I've seen since Santa Clause Conquers the Martians.