Box Office Outlook: Who Wants WALL-E?

By Katey Rich

Even though I have some reservations about Wanted, which I'll write about later today, there's no doubt that this is one of the best weekends for movies so far this summer. First there's Wanted, a gory, shoot-em-up action thriller that is wowing critics with its visual style and exquisite use of the exquisite Angelina Jolie (not to mention my personal heartthrob James McAvoy). And then there are the geniuses at Pixar, once again sweeping up their required accolades with Wall-E, a sci-fi comedy-drama that's melting hearts as well as evoking cries of "Best Animated Feature Oscar!" Well, it's Pixar-- what else do you expect?

WALL-E. Opening in 3,992 theatres. A robot left on earth 700 years after humanity abandoned it, WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter--Earth Class) goes about his business in a desolate city, stacking garbage and collecting the niftiest pieces for himself. But when EVE (Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) arrives in WALL-E's life, he's so smitten that he follows her back to the spaceship where she lives with what's left of humanity. The adventure proceeds from there, and if the critics aren't spoiling it, I won't either. Andrew Stanton, who wrote and directed Finding Nemo, performed the same duties on this one.

*Sigh*. There's virtually no one who hasn't fallen in love with WALL-E-- Rotten Tomatoes has only scored two negative reviews among the 90 counted so far. Our Kevin Lally, for starters, writes, "The studio takes big risks in WALL-E that pay handsome dividends." Among those risks are the first half-hour, which takes place entirely without dialogue; NPR's Bob Mondello loves that shout-out to silent-era filmmaking, writing, "I'm just as gratified by their look back 70 years to silent movies as I am by their look forward 700 years to a silent planet." Joe Morgenstern at the Wall Street Journal realizes he's risking hyperbole when he calls WALL-E a masterpiece, but he can't help describing it as "a love letter to the possibilities of the movie medium, and a dazzling demonstration of how computers can create a photorealistic world that leaves literal reality in the dust." Are you tired of reading nothing but raves for this movie? I'm not! "Somehow their expressions achieve an otherworldly eloquence," writes A.O. Scott at The New York Times of our lovers WALL-E and EVE. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times calls it "daring and traditional, groundbreaking and familiar, apocalyptic and sentimental." Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly calls it "puckishly inventive, altogether marvelous." And, OK, I'll stop with just one more, from Roger Ebert: "It involves ideas, not simply mindless scenarios involving characters karate-kicking each other into high-angle shots. It involves a little work on the part of the audience, and a little thought, and might be especially stimulating to younger viewers. This story told in a different style and with a realistic look could have been a great science-fiction film. For that matter, maybe it is."

WANTED. Opening in 3,175 theatres. Based on an ultraviolent series of graphic novels, Wanted stars James McAvoy as Wesley, a cubicle drone whose life is transformed when he finds out his father was a member of a secret society of assassins, and he's their newest recruit. Trained by Fox (Angelina Jolie) and society leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman), Wesley prepares for his ultimate mission-- killing the renegade (Thomas Kretschmann) who murdered his father. But, as is usually the case with movies involving assassins and weaponry, it's not quite that easy.

Most critics have fallen for Wanted's flashy visuals and high-octane speed, but our Frank Lovece is not among them. He wasn't even excited by the visuals: "[Wanted is] a generic Hollywood product that looks and feels like a half-dozen other films that excited neither critics nor audiences." Newsday says the movie "feels like a rotisserie team of other supercool movies"-- but that's meant as a compliment. "Man, does it rock," The Detroit News says succinctly, and The Washington Post calls it "revenge of the nerds at its nastiest and most vulgar"-- again, that's meant as a compliment... I think. David Ansen at Newsweek saves most of his criticism for Jolie-- "Somebody needs to give this beautiful assassin a Fatburger"-- but also titles his review "America's Least Wanted." Ouch. And the always-cranky Anthony Lane at The New Yorker criticizes the film's over-the-top style with a non-sequitur pondering how director Timur Bekmambetov makes his coffee: "My best guess, based on the evidence of the film, is that he tosses a handful of beans toward the ceiling, shoots them individually into a fine powder, leaves it hanging in the air, runs downstairs, breaks open a fire hydrant with his head, carefully directs the jet of water through the window of his apartment, sets fire to the building, then stands patiently with his mug amid the blazing ruins to collect the precious percolated drops. Don't even think about a cappuccino."