Review of Paul (2011) by Cosmotosis — 10 Apr 2011

Virtually plot-less, Paul plods along, constantly introducing character after lifeless character. Each scene is punctuated by a poorly-constructed gay joke, and the disembodiment of Seth Rogen's voice is truly unsettling.

The film, after the opening scene of Paul's ship landing on a dog, begins with an upbeat musical montage of the main characters, forcing a familiarity of them upon the audience. They then *somehow* acquire an RV, (which they drive as if it were a Honda Civic) in a pursuit of spotting UFOs via a cross-country road trip. Now, add Paul, a gray alien who has escaped the government's clutches,. He makes a rather predictable and unintelligent introduction to our main characters. If Paul is not propaganda to make us believe that the extraterrestrial lifeforms of our universe have the personality and intelligence of any beer-bonging college human "brah", then I don't know what it is.

From there, the characters' overly-apparent awkward social graces make enemies with everyone they meet. Before long, they have a transcontinental train of gun-toting antagonists following behind them, from homophobic hillbilly redneck hunters, to the FBI. It is unclear what anyone's goal is in this movie - antagonists, protagonists, script writers, producers... what is going on?

When the investigators set up a road bock, the scene cuts directly from the officers waving traffic to the side of the road, to their RV immediately being searched, encouraging us to allow our rights to be illegally violated. I digress.

Paul finally leaves Earth by signaling his alien brethren to pick him up with... fireworks. This works not only immediately, but also very well, because fireworks haven't been fired anywhere on Earth, at any time in the past 70 years. Plot hole after plot hole, the writers abandon a potential script of substance for a cinematic faux-pas, intentionally created to condition humans to the existence of aliens, which Paul, actually points out at one part in the movie.

As for the supposedly spectacular sci-fi references, they were too few to quantify. A pathetic excuse for a sci-fi friendly film; a pathetic excuse for a film, period. 104 minutes of my life I will never get back. Imagine what else could have been done with their $40,000,000 budget...