Slumberland (2022)

"Nemo" (Marlow Barkley) has one of those lifestyles I would love! She lives in a lighthouse. When a storm visits one night, a tragedy ensues and she must relocate into the city to live with her estranged uncle "Philip" (Chris O'Dowd). He is a shy man who designs door handles - successfully - for a living. Struggling to come to terms with her new environment, she finds her dreams become more and more bizarre as she encounters "Flip" (Jason Momoa). Now this is a character that her father had regaled her with exciting adventures stories about, and now it seems he is looking for a map that will track down some pearls that might enable him (and her) to get what they most desire. This is no ordinary map, though. It is one of dreams, and the pair now have some lively escapades at they gate-crash the nocturnal visions of others. Of course, these transgressions aren't allowed and they are both pursued by the relentless and cunning "Agent Green" (Weruche Opia) from the Bureau charged with preventing such activities, as well as by the nightmares of the young girl which threaten to consume all in their path. To be fair, Momoa does enter into the spirit of the story, but his characterisation is just too hammy and over-cooked. I kept wondering if Antonio Banderas might have been better, or Geoffrey Rush? Barkley is enthusiastic and quite engaging, though, and the visual effects are creative, imaginative and vividly expressed as we progress. The nature of the narrative is a bit repetitive, which doesn't always help, and the story is the simplest of fairy tales-style efforts that does have a certain charm to it - especially her stuffed pig - but is really rather too thin to pad out an overlong two hours of screen time. It's clearly Netflix' attempt to enter the Christmas family market, but somehow I can't imagine many kids sitting through it all, particularly the long, drawn out, denouement.

I was happy to watch this movie yesterday. I did not really know about but it the kids suggested it for our evening movie session. After watching that woke rubbish Free Guy, this was quite refreshing. This is how a family movie should be. Entertaining, lots of adventure, fantasy and dreamworlds (literally in this movie). It is really a movie for most ages. But most important, free of woke bullshit, political preaching and agenda pushing. Of course that rubbish site Rotten Tomatoes’ critics gave it a 40% rotten while the audience gave it a 85% fresh rating which, to me, made the movie even more enjoyable. The story is quite cool and I did like Jason Momoa in the role of Flip the dream creature. Some people compare him to Jack Sparrow and it is indeed not too far of. It is a nice adventure jumping between the real world and the dream world. The real world was sometimes a wee bit gloomy and boring but the dream world made up for that. The ending was what I would expect from a family movie, a quite positive one. It was quite fun to see Philip transform once he got his dreams, and apparently all the experiences from his dreaming, back.