Review of Welcome to Marwen (2018) by Tiberio S — 22 Dec 2018

From the getgo, we could clearly feel Marwen was missing the mark. It wants to be a dazzling, magical, emotional, feel-good story, but it's clumsy, awkward, disjointed, and fails to capture a truly immersive blend of real and surreal. Cliche film techniques muddle down an already difficult to engage story, where dolls replay the same violent massacre repeatedly to a mostly pointless effect. The inside of Mark's world is not beautiful or inspiring, it is the effect of PTSD, but Zemeckis shoots it as if it is to inspire some charm in the audience that is completely void.

The film is written and directed by Zemeckis, something he's done much of his career, with great success in his Back to the Future glory. It might be that this master filmmaker is losing his touch. Flight might be his peak. Allied was way off. Though it's exciting to see him become self-referential, it may also be the strongest sign of an aging weariness. Similarly, Spielberg released his self-referential Ready Player One earlier this year, ironically enough with plenty of Zemeckis cues, including a DeLorean, composer Alan Silvestri, and the time traveling Zemeckis cube. In Marwen, Zemeckis returns to the flying time machine, this time in the form of a toy, which leaves fire tire tracks in the sky. There's a hint of a Future score, and CRM 114 makes an appearance. While these are fun, it may also be Zemeckis reaching out and saying the tank is running on empty.