The Last Mimzy brought about two unexpected realizations. (1) Donnie Darko ruined all cinematic bunnies for me. Which reminds me: is Southland Tales ever coming out? (2) When he’s not being Dwight Schrute, Rainn Wilson is kinda cute in an evil geek sort of way.
We had a really hard time finding an appropriate match up for The Last Mimzy. It just seemed weird to put it up against something like Super Croc or Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen, so we put it up against Zathura.
In The Last Mimzy, a brother and sister find a box of toys on the beach that wind up changing them into more evolved humans. The girl starts levitating and talking to a stuffed bunny (named Mimzy) she found in the box. The boy becomes a science wiz and starts talking to bugs. It’s all part of the future’s effort to save humanity by bringing uncontaminated DNA from the past into the future.
The Last Mimzy was slow, but compelling, until the last scene where it all fell apart. The whole ending felt like it had been pooped out and tacked on at the last minute. The bunny collected the DNA when the little girl’s tears fell on it, and went back to the future to save the day. The girl almost got sucked into the future, the brother had to save her, the teacher saw lottery numbers and the government guys simply got in their chopper and flew away after Michael Clarke Duncan asked, “Is there anything I can do? Fancy a spot of tea?” That convenient ending was like Disney’s Pocahontas - solving that pesky genocide thing with a catchy ditty.
The mom in this movie made me so crazy, I wanted to reach inside the TV and slap her. She worries because the kids don’t want to play with her at their beach house. Shouldn’t she be happy that they had torn themselves away from the TV and the iPod and the Sega and actually WENT OUTSIDE? And when the boy shows a sudden talent in science, she wants to get professional help. That’s right, mom. Medicate the kid so he’ll be an emotionless, unimaginative automaton, just like everyone else.
In the first few scenes, there are electronics everywhere and no one can tear themselves away from them. There’s a scene on a public bus that is very obvious about it. I get it. We’re all too plugged into our electronics and it’s eating away at our humanity. However, I still think headphones are the most useful tool in the on going struggle to keep creepy people from talking to me on the Greyhound.
I’ve been really disillusioned with science fiction in the past couple of years. It’s so dark and gritty and hopeless. Even in reality, outer space isn’t what it used to be – everyone is worried about safety and the prospect of another space shuttle blowing up. It all screams “DANGER!” and says we’re better off here on the ground.
I want science fiction to be fun again. I want it to hold the possibility for adventure and wonder again. With a giant robot, Flash Gordon era spaceships, a jet pack and four-eyed goats, Zathura is the first thing to come along in years that gives me that.
I always thought I’d have a jet pack by the year 2000. Why isn’t someone working on that?
The retro feel echoes through the entire movie from the robot to the spaceships, right down to the family’s old house and the dad’s Mercury Comet parked on the curb. Since the kids are already in a more classic environment, the retro science fiction elements don’t look out of place once they start flying in. It’s just that extra little touch that helps. You know, like someone actually thought it through.
The story isn’t complicated: kids wind up inside the sci-fi game they’re playing and have to win in order to get home. There’s a subplot with sibling rivalry, but it’s not preachy. Otherwise, it’s survival, pure and simple, with a real sense of danger and tension, which is helped by the practical special effects. The stuff looks like it’s actually there (Thank you, Jon Favreau – I’m getting so sick of CGI).
The Last Mimzy was yet another family film let down. It played to adults and what it said to kids wasn’t that great (That’s right, kiddo. You’ll always suck at school unless you find a future toy box that changes your brain patterns. And your little sister will still be more special than you). Zathura felt like it was made by an overgrown kid for kids (and other overgrown kids). Zathura wins.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
