WHAT’S IT ABOUT
Hired to investigate seaside village attacks, mutant monster hunter Geralt unravels an age-old conflict between humans and sea people that threatens war between kingdoms.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Netflix’s latest animated movie tries but fails to make a splash. It starts strongly but quickly becomes something you can watch while scrolling on your phone without missing anything important. After fans grew unhappy with the main show’s direction and its star actor leaving, this standalone story attempts to get things back on track. Unfortunately, it makes unnecessary changes to the original short story it’s based on and ends up feeling generic. The movie follows a monster hunter and his musician friend as they visit a coastal town. The local king hires them to kill a dangerous sea creature that’s been attacking fishermen. Meanwhile, the king’s son is in love with a mermaid princess from a nearby underwater kingdom, which the king suspects might be behind the attacks. The original story was dark, complex, and ended sadly. This version simplifies everything with obvious good guys, clear villains, and a neat ending. While changing stories during adaptation is normal, here it results in a boring script with no surprises. The movie is so simplified that you can look away for entire scenes and still guess what happens next. What made the original story special was its focus on love – forbidden love, unrequited love, and the sacrifices people make for love. Through this story, the main character better understood his feelings for his ex-girlfriend and appreciated his friendship with the musician. None of this happens in the movie version, which instead begins with a monster fight, ends with another monster fight, and offers little meaningful content in between. There are brief flashbacks showing the hero is still sad about his breakup, but this subplot is so minor it’s easy to forget about it. Instead, the movie focuses more on the musician, who apparently grew up in this town and hates the kingdom’s military advisor who bullied him as a child. The adaptation strays too far from its source material – the same problem that plagues the main show. In the original story, the heroes were hired to help translate a marriage proposal to the mermaid princess. The movie also changes a character who was originally a rival musician into a childhood friend, which feels unnecessary and too familiar. Most frustrating is the increased focus on the underwater kingdom. While it’s nice to see the mermaid princess given more importance, and the underwater people have clear reasons for wanting war with the surface world, the movie ends up feeling more like “The Little Mermaid” than its own thing. There’s even an underwater character manipulating the princess and an out-of-place musical number. Characters rarely get enough time to develop beyond their basic role in the story, and too often it feels like you’ve seen this same story elsewhere. Some new characters have interesting concepts worth exploring better, but the movie doesn’t give them enough attention. As for our main characters, while their usual banter is sometimes fun, the movie doesn’t give either of them enough control over the story’s events. Most of the plot happens through chaos and coincidence. Making things worse, the movie borrows heavily from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” Without spoiling anything, there’s a musical scene very similar to the Disney classic. One subplot involves a magical potion identical to the one in “The Little Mermaid,” and even the final sea battle seems copied from Disney. This odd choice further limits a movie already lacking originality. The animation has some bright spots. The first fight with a sea monster feels dangerous and intense until the hero wins, shown in a beautiful painted style. The final battle between soldiers, our heroes, sea creatures, and the main villain is also well-animated and keeps viewers engaged with the action. However, the animation style falls short in showing emotions. Characters seem to only feel either anger or happiness, with nothing in between, leaving the voice actors to do most of the emotional heavy lifting. This is a flawed movie with a few good moments that make it acceptable for casual viewing. For dedicated fans, it offers a glimpse of adventures that fit between earlier episodes of the main show. But with so many new shows and movies released every week on different streaming services, this movie needed to do more to stand out. While it’s good that Netflix tries new formats to expand one of its popular properties, this isn’t the spin-off that will convince audiences that this franchise deserves all the content it gets.
OUR RATING – A FLAWED 3