Double Feature: Wonder Park & Captive State

On a passing glance, Nickelodeon's Wonder Park and Rupert Wyatt's' Captive State share nothing in common. The obvious being one aimed for kids and the other for adults but looking at the plot, both are bizarrely similar. They take place in a specific location that used to be full of life; now it's invaded by hostile forces that originated from the sky. The titular character is randomly thrust into the conflict, sees beforehand what is at stake both involving a creature with prickly quills. They are prevented from leaving and the final solution involves traveling into the sky with the high probability of no return. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Wonder Park is the 30th feature film from Nickelodeon Movies, and eleventh to be animated. It's also the third project to be concocted as a pilot for a TV show like Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and Barnyard. The story follows a young girl named June (Brianna Denski) playing pretend with her mother (Jennifer Garner) on creating an amusement park called Wonderland. A magical place run by talking animals including a chimpanzee (Norbert Leo Butz), a boar (Mila Kunis), a narcoleptic blue bear (Ken Hudson Campbell), two beavers (Keenan Thompson & Ken Jeong) and a porcupine (Jon Oliver). When June's mother becomes gravely ill, it saddens June to the point that she puts her imaginative ideas away. At the insistence of her dad (Matthew Broderick), she goes on a camping trip and you can guess what happens there. She gets lost in the woods, discover's Wonderland and its inhabitants are real, and must protect the park from possessed chimp plushies.

Wonder Park had alot going for; though trying to cram Toy Story, Christopher Robin, and A Monster Call's into one movie was not a right call. A meaningful effort that has creativity and vibrant animation but results in a bland picture. If you thought the comparison to Captive State was strange, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland was another that came to mind. A young girl returning to a place thought to be imaginary, meeting a colorful assortment of characters, a huge army, and the tone rapidly switching from serious to gleeful. Remember how in the Burton film, the place is called Underland not Wonderland, despite it being in the movie's title and source material? The Amusement Park in this movie is called Wonderland (another strange coincidence) but the movie is called Wonder Park. At least the the word Wonderland is briefly said in the Burton film, but Wonder Park is never uttered in its own picture. The film suffered a fate somewhat similar to Bohemian Rhapsody which is why the end credits list no director. But where that film in its final cut showed no signs of a troubled production, you can tell something was drastically changed in the editing and story room with this movie. The focus is all over the place being mature one second then juvenile the next. The characters, while occasionally charming like Oliver and Thompson range from forgettable to generic It's also the second film after How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, with a weird romantic subplot this time involving the porcupine and the boar. There is so much randomness I can tolerate that kids might eat it up but adults will most likely be playing Roller Coaster Tycoon on their phones or rather be on a real roller coaster.

Final Verdict for Wonder Park: C

With the arrival of extra-terrestrials, Earth has submitted with most of the humanity accepting their rule while others attempt to fight back. Many major cities have been shut off from the rest of the world like Chicago, where the story takes place. Captive State shows both sides of the human race. On one end we see Police Officer William Mulligan (John Goodman) who has allied himself with the aliens in bringing peace between both races and tracking those who retaliate. On the the other end is Gabriel Drummond (Ashton Sanders), your average citizen who goes to work on a daily basis, accepting alien rule but dream's of escaping. One day he is thrust into the rebellion as they plan a sneak attack against the otherworldly oppressors.

Like Wonder Park, Captive State has an interesting concept. Imagine if District 9 and Cloverfield wanted to be Arrival. An outcome with 10%  of the movie being fascinating and suspenseful but the remaining 90% a snore to sit through. Instead of your Independence Day-style invasion it goes for a political thriller route with the battle taking place in the shadows and out of sight. A concept that could work on television to establish the characters, setting, and conflict than in a movie with a nearly two-hour runtime. We spend so much time with the humans and very little on the aliens, the main highlight of any sci-fi movie, appearing in only three scenes. As for the humans, Goodman and and Sanders have the most development and screentime, but even they are absent for a good amount as we try to keep up with a dozen other characters that I don't remember or knew little about. The only thing I do remember are a few names of the actors who portrayed them. The movie even tries to wrap everything up with a Harry Potter twist reveal that makes the premise more convoluted then it already was. I may not be fan of films of recent slow sci-fi movies like Arrival, Annihilation or Blade Runner 2049, but I can respect on the deeper meaning they were trying to project, with Captive State. I'm not sure it had one. 

Final Verdict for Captive State: D+