Is it good though ?

Rating: 7/10 (7 February 2019)

Baby driver is now on Netflix. That means that people who weren't convinced enough by the premise to see the film in theaters, will now - maybe - give it a shot. I did. And I don't regret it. Nor do I regret having missed it while it was in cinemas. It's a decent movie, far better than the Netflix usual, but it's not great.
The plot is bad. It feels like something written by an adolescent for adolescents. Ok, that's not a bad thing as such: I mean it worked for Wright's Scott Pilgrim. But Baby Driver lacks the self-referential humor. It's less fun. It takes itself too seriously, at least to my liking. The plot is not good, but it shouldn't matter that much since this is more of an 'atmosphere movie' - the main characters are the visuals, the soundtrack, the rhythm, the kind of overall 'vibe'...
Let's talk about that. The music is good and used in a clever, entertaining way. The visuals are good, sometimes a bit overdone (the scene in the laundromat did not achieve what it aimed to), but the overall cinematography is more than solid, sometimes even downright amazing (e.g. he car chases) thanks to Wright's signature playfulness and creativity. The rhythm is fine, even if it loses momentum towards the end.
But a movie cannot survive on atmosphere alone (maybe Fury Road pulled that off, depends on whom you ask). Baby driver has serious flaws. Take the characters... The protagonist is far too polished to be relatable: young, good looking, witty, genius driver, brave, intelligent, mature, confident, charitable, lucky as can be, well-versed in tasteful music, musician himself, ... But he's an orphan, so he's human after all - I guess. The other characters are all painfully one-dimensional. As mentioned above, the plot is weak. The dialogue is plain.
In a nutshell : Baby Driver is good, but it has too many flaws to be memorable. It felt a bit generic, easy, using too many tropes to be genuinely seducing. I had no regrets watching it, but I won't be coming back.