Pete’s Dragon Review

<p>Nostalgia is one hell of a drug&period; Over the past few months in particular&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;ve all fallen victim to various movies and TV shows stoking at our love of past media and especially the 80s&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not just various nostalgia though&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re being fed peak 80&&num;8217&semi;s cinema culture&period; As directors like Jeff Nichols&comma; Jeremy Saulnier&comma; and The Duffer Brothers pay homage to legendary director John Carpenter&comma; we suck it up as the next best thing&period; A few of the prior directors have been accused of straight ripping off from Carpenter&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s not easily said for <em>Pete&&num;8217&semi;s Dragon<&sol;em> director David Lowery&period; After his sophomore film&comma; <em>Ain&&num;8217&semi;t Them Bodies Saints<&sol;em>&comma; left a mark on the indie world&comma; Disney picked him to remake the lesser known musical from 1977&period; Does it manage to become its own beast&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Normally in this part of the review&comma; I would summarize the plot&comma; but here&&num;8217&semi;s where <em>Pete&&num;8217&semi;s Dragon<&sol;em> differs from a lot of films&period; There isn&&num;8217&semi;t much of a plot&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s pretty refreshing&period; A boy is left in the wilderness and befriends a dragon before being found by the encroaching civilization&period; What makes that so remarkable is how Lowery &lpar;and Disney&rpar; allow the film to breathe&period; After the breakneck pace of numerous television series and 2 &amp&semi; a half hour films&comma; Lowery allows the characters to naturally be within the universe that the rest of the film builds&period; When was the last time a mainstream movie let an expositional scene be over 5 minutes&quest; I can&&num;8217&semi;t remember&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite a lot of the originality displayed&comma; <em>Pete&&num;8217&semi;s Dragon<&sol;em> has still come under fire for playing right out of Steven Spielberg&&num;8217&semi;s wheelhouse&period; The criticisms are not unfounded&period; The film has a close resemblance to Spielberg&&num;8217&semi;s 1982 classic&comma; <em>E&period;T&period; The Extra Terrestrial<&sol;em>&period; A boy befriends a creature and discovers a world of magic and fright along the way&period; What moves <em>Pete&&num;8217&semi;s Dragon<&sol;em> into its own thing is how patient it is&period; Lowery could have easily made this film 90 minutes and had every piece of film stripped of life&period; It shows incredible restraint to pull off a film like this and Lowery has it in spades&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;111672" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-111672" style&equals;"width&colon; 936px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-111672 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;18001920&sol;MV5BMjI3OTc1OTM1OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTgwNzAxODE&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Pete's Dragon&comma; Walt Disney Studios&rpar; " width&equals;"936" height&equals;"624" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-111672" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Pete&&num;8217&semi;s Dragon<&sol;em>&comma; Walt Disney Studios&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>All that being said&comma; this films belongs to a handful of people&period; First off is Lowery himself&period; Aside from all the reasons I previously mentioned&comma; he understands how to build setting and time&period; Set roughly in the late 70s to early 80s in a small mid-western town&comma; Lowery sets out to never tell the audience any of these things&period; Based on geography and the technology around these characters&comma; we have to look into that ourselves&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re trusted as an audience to do the heavy lifting&period; Our star&comma; Oakes Fegley is tremendous as Pete&period; Filled with wonder and awe&comma; the young actor is entirely convincing as a boy that lives with this dragon&period; So many humorous scenes are sold out of his reaction to random objects&comma; but he can do the harsh emotional scenes as well&period; Last&comma; but not least&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve got to give it to the animators of Elliot the Dragon&period; While not exactly photo-realistic&comma; his presence is completely believable to the world established and works wonders on the audience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It says a lot about a film when my main problem is that the remaining actors aren&&num;8217&semi;t given enough material to be any better than they usually are&period; All other actors are&comma; at the very least&comma; solid&period; <em>Pete&&num;8217&semi;s Dragon<&sol;em> is a solid experience that is able to exist on its own terms and knows how to modestly accomplish its goals&period; After putting Spielberg to shame and becoming attached to Disney&&num;8217&semi;s upcoming live-action remake&comma; <em>Peter Pan<&sol;em>&semi; I&&num;8217&semi;d say it&&num;8217&semi;s safe to give Lowery some time to make his own thing&period; Then again&comma; if he keeps doing director-for-hire movies this good&comma; I don&&num;8217&semi;t see why they would even let him go&period; For that&comma; I definitely don&&num;8217&semi;t blame them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;