PLOT: Moana (Catherine Laga’aia), the headstrong daughter of her village’s chief, tries to save her dying island by convincing a reluctant demigod, Maui (Dwayne Johnson), to return the mythical Heart of Te Fiti to where it rightfully belongs.
REVIEW: If you’re considering going to see Moana this weekend, ask yourself this: do you want anything fresh or new from the experience? If the answer is yes, then you can skip this one. On the other hand, if you just want to see Dwayne Johnson reprise his role as Maui in live action, quality be damned, then by all means, have at it. But for the rest of us, this live-action (well, kinda) remake is another pointless retread.
Disney’s been full steam ahead on live-action remakes since Alice in Wonderland was a major hit sixteen years ago, but that movie had Tim Burton as its director and wasn’t just a copy-and-paste version of the original. The more recent ones have tried to be literal carbon copies, with increasingly diminishing returns. Moana might be the one that makes them reconsider this strategy, as moving it to live action wrings out all the charm of the original.
It’s weird to say, but the animated version of the film almost feels more real than this redux, as when you watch an animated movie, you buy into the world. You don’t have to worry about CGI, unconvincing face replacements, or even muscle-bound bodysuits, all of which are featured. The film marks the unceremonious theatrical debut of director Thomas Kail, who helmed the original stage version of Hamilton, as well as the underrated Fosse/Verdon limited series. He does a very workmanlike job with a movie that could have used some personality, but when you’re doing a straight-up adaptation, there’s not a lot of room to maneuver.
Dwayne Johnson has fun as Maui, but the muscle suit is distracting, and it would have been better had they just used his actual body, as it’s not like the guy isn’t built. Paired with some unconvincing locks, Johnson seems less than his larger-than-life self. He’s effortlessly charismatic, but there’s nothing especially memorable in his live-action redo of the character. At least Catherine Laga’aia, who plays Moana, doesn’t have to replay a role she already did, and while she’s fine, she’s playing a thinly written character—which is fine for an animated kids movie but doesn’t really work in a live-action epic.
It also doesn’t help that so much of the movie is littered with CGI. While they shot on location in some beautiful places, a lot of the film takes place on the water, and it feels fake. The CGI monsters also seem less convincing in live action, but what kills the film is the flat look. The animated original was eye-popping at times, but this has that same flat, digital look that has marred every Disney movie for the last decade or so. It’s shot by Óscar Faura, who is J. A. Bayona’s go-to cinematographer, but there aren’t any truly memorable shots, with this looking like a movie that was shot with an eye on streaming.
Even if you have kids who want a day out at the movies, I’d wager you could do better than this Moana remake simply by throwing the original on—or even taking them to see something else. When the seventh Minions movie seems many times more original by comparison, something’s gone awry. This may prove to be a costly flop for all involved.
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