Summary: In ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by the demigod Maui reaches Moana’s island, she answers the Ocean’s call to seek out Maui to set things right. (A live action remake of the 2016 Moana – read that review here)
This review is short, and it took me way too long to write it.
Pros:
- Catherine Laga’aia as Moana. Moana is the daughter of the village chief. She’s curious by nature and drawn to the water. She loves to hear stories of their ancestry and how they’re connected but when things begin to fall apart on her island, she wants to go beyond the reef in hopes of saving everyone. Then she’s chosen by the ocean to restore Te Fiti’s heart. She sets out, without any real knowledge of wayfinding to find Maui to help him restore the heart. Catherine Laga’aia was good. You can tell it’s her first leading role, if it’s not her first full length role because there’s an eagerness about her performance where you can see she’s trying really hard to be Moana. She has a beautiful voice, sounds very similar to Auli’i Cravalho so I’m sure that was a huge bonus for her casting. I think she does well enough with the direction she was given.
- I didn’t want to give her an actual con point, but I do have some criticisms for her. I felt like there was a lisp or something going on, but my friend later mentioned it was her accent slipping. I think she’s a bit too full-on smile where it should be more of a smug look, especially when interacting with Maui and their familial antagonistic relationship throughout the movie. I also didn’t think she nailed the emotional beats, they were almost there.
- Dwayne Johnson as Maui. I’m going to talk about him more later, but I do want to give him props for having nice chemistry with Catherine Laga’aia and there are some nice moments from him.
- Rena Owen as Gramma Tala. Moana’s grandmother shares a passion for the ocean. She’s very close with Moana and they have a special bond often showcased throughout the movie. Tala tries to nurture Moana’s curiosity and her love for the ocean and the need to find her purpose in life. She saw the Ocean choose Moana to receive the heart and encourage her to find her way and save their village. I think she was great. Just like in the animated movie, she made me tear up. I thought she had great chemistry with Catherine; she was fun and a little kooky like Tala is supposed to be.
CGI sometimes. I think Te Fiti and Te Ka look great. Te Ka is scary; I think they did update her design a little in. She still has a form, but I think they went a little wilder with the fire, smoke and lava rock. I liked it.
As for Te Fiti, she’s a bit more like a mountain compared to her animated version which is very hilly, in terms of basic design. I thought she looked great. I know people complained about her not being as vibrant and I do think they could’ve made her brighter but I think she looks good though.
It’s good. I think the movie is just good. Since it’s a shot for shot remake, I think overall it’s good. I don’t think there’s anything necessarily offensive about the movie or the story overall (except one thing but I’ll get into that later). I had a good time to say the least. I feel like if you wanted to pop this one on then that’s fine. I know a lot of kids don’t resonate with the animated versions but like the live actions so this movie can fit that bill.
The Music. I’m not sure if I can really give it to this movie since the music in the original is already so good but I think some of Moana’s songs are in a slightly lower key since Catherine has a lower register than Auli’i. But she sounds great. I was impressed. “Shiny” sounds a little different, I don’t dislike this song the way others do but it sounds a little different. “I am Moana” still hits so that’s great for me. I also loved the “We Know the Way” sequence, I liked the new voices on it since Lin Manuel – Miranda isn’t singing on it.
Cons:
Dwayne Johnson as Maui. I don’t think he’s horrible BUT he’s so miscast it’s crazy. He was great in the animated movie, his charisma oozed out of Maui’s animated pores but all of that is missing in this movie. When I heard he was cast, I rolled my eyes hard. I know he loves Moana a lot of it because of the connection to his own culture, but he could’ve been involved as a producer without starring in it. I think him being in the movie makes it worse than it should be. He’s not old in life but he’s too old for this role. Maui and Moana have a big brother/little sister vibe in the animated movie and DJ physically being there, looking as old as he does, with that bad wig and body suit, is distracting and wrong. It makes it more paternal and that’s not the vibe we need. He could’ve given some young Pacific Islander male actor a chance to show up and show out. Plus, Maui’s personality would work better if he was younger. It’s really annoying. He also sounds old while singing “You’re Welcome”, which is one of my fave songs.
Adds Nothing New. Some people may not find this to be a criticism but a big issue I had with this movie, as someone who doesn’t mind the live action remakes, is that this one adds nothing new. It’s literally just the animated movie… in live action… and not as good. It’s not BAD but it could’ve been better. Even if you think most of the other remakes are bad, which I agree with some are… some of them at least tried to do something different or add something new. This one literally does none of that. There’s no expansion on anyone’s backstory, there’s no change to the story or a character arc, no new song or anything. The animated movie is so good and tight there wasn’t room to add anything, but I think if you’re going to straight up remake something, then you need to add something new to it. And I’m not talking about adaptations or reimagining. We could’ve seen more of Maui’s backstory, it could’ve been one of the stories Grandma Tala told. I didn’t mind how they did in the movie with the constellations while Maui narrated but I think that could’ve been expanded. There could’ve been extensions of scenes, which would allow us to sit in them more.
Comedy Beats. I haven’t watched the animated movie in a while to know if all of the comedic beats are exactly the same, I think they are largely, but unfortunately a good chunk of them don’t hit. Maui is a source of humor, and it doesn’t work well because one, I don’t find Hei Hei funny, I might’ve in the animated film when I first saw it, but I didn’t here. Maui got a few chuckles from me, but I was so distracted by Dwayne (negative) that it didn’t land. Moana has some moments but like I said in her section, if she continues to act, she can hone her abilities to feel a bit more natural in her roles.
Direction/Bad CGI. This is Thomas Kail’s first actual directing credit. He did Hamilton but that’s not the same as doing an actual movie. I think a lot of his choices are very boring. There were some nice shots, but some sequences didn’t feel energetic, or it was too toned down. I don’t mind Moana not running the entire time she’s singing in “How Far I’ll Go”, I mean running on sand isn’t easy for anyone but the camera just being on her while she’s standing there singing is boring. I also think the “You’re Welcome” sequence wasn’t as fun as it could be. Of course, live action provides limitations but there were too many times where Maui was just standing there singing on a blue screen. Very boring. In terms of the bad CGI, I don’t think Hei Hei looks good, I thought Pua was cute, but I didn’t like Hei Hei. I didn’t care for Tamatoa’s look either, but it wasn’t horrible. There’re also many times where they’re clearly on a green/blue screen. It’s not seamless.
Bad Wigs. We all know about the wig situation. We saw the behind-the-scenes pictures of Dwayne Johnson in his “Maui” wig and how bad that looked. It looks worse on screen. It’s so bad that it’s distracting. It ONLY looks good when it’s wet (and sometimes in wide shots). But there’s also this random curl that sits right to the side of his forehead that my eyes kept going to. Catherine Laga’aia is also wearing a wig, I don’t think hers is as bad as Dwayne’s, but her hairline clearly doesn’t look real. There are some shots where it looks fine but definitely when it’s wet. I’m sure Catherine wore a wig compared to her real hair because of how much she was going to be in the water, and they didn’t want to ruin her hair and/or continuity issues with trying to dry/style her hair every time. But it’s just very annoying that they didn’t get a curlier wig. Or how they keep saying lines about Maui having nice hair… when he doesn’t.
Overall, I don’t think the movie is bad. Since it’s basically a shot for shot remake, it’s fine, it’s good. I thought the acting for the most part is good. Catherine Laga’aia, for her first role, does really well. The other actors are also good in their roles. The music is great, which it is in the original, so they’d have to really mess it up for it to be bad in this one. Te Fiti and Te Ka look great. On the other hand, they didn’t do anything new with the movie to justify a remake outside of putting the movie into a new medium, which I guess is fine in the end but still. Dwayne Johnson is very distracting as Maui to the point that I think it’s a detriment to the movie. It has a lot of boring and distracting directional choices. In the end though, the live action Moana is fine. I think if you like the original, it could go 50/50 on whether you’d like this one. I can imagine kids who don’t like to watch some animated things, would like it. It’s also just fun to see how they handle animated sequences in live action.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.
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