Good, but could be better...here's how

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2020)

This wasn't a bad movie, it was a good movie with the potential to be a great movie.
PROS

very funny - genuine laugh out loud moments
great acting by all
great first half, good intro and development of characters

CONS

the second half of the movie was too predictable, there was no punchline ending, no deeper meaning, it was cliche. Movies like pans labraynth and life is beautiful had their similar moments of surrealism, but ended up showing the horror of the war that came afterwards. But jojo ends with the dancing of the main characters on a street that should have been teeming with post war destruction and rape that we know was the reality of the war. All I could see when was 'man these kids are in for a world of hurt'. It skipped out on an upbeat level of optimism that I think takes away from portraying an authentic picture of the war. Some may argue that this was childhood innocence maybe for the last time before the reality of pain take a over, but I felt it to be lacking. Other films like inglorious bastards recreated the entire history, which then makes it fine to have a positive ending. But jojo decided to keep to the real world events, but opted for a jarring fantasy ending.

hitler was the side of jojo that wanted to feel needed and accepted, and it took the form of hitler who he loved and admired. But, as he is a friend and creation of jojo, I think it would have been more interesting for imaginary hitler to adopt and reflect the changes jojo undergoes as he falls in love. It would have been a powerful symbol if his hitler was sympathizing and supporting of his decisions to help the girl, while the real hitler was out there killing millions of Jews. I think by having him eventually kick his hitler out of a window played into hands of the predictable, where as this could of been a moment of a deeper exploration into good and evil. Imagine a movie that makes you adore hitler.

they could of done more with the rabbit part. The film is called jojo rabbit, he identifies himself as the rabbit early on with scenes of great set up - not killing the rabbit and then his talk with his hitler, so I thought that theme could of been fleshed out more. Maybe put him into a situation into the climax of the movie where he consciously has to decide to be the rabbit and use his rabbit brain, and do something that only he can do. Perhaps the antagonist (the guy who killed the rabbit) could have been a part of him proving himself in the same way that PK had to prove himself in the film the power of one against the one German boy.

the movie tried to occupy too many scenes. I think the story would of worked better if they kept it mostly within the house. When they started going outside with the battles, it lost a lot of the tension as the film was trying to do too much. It could have indicated the war was intensifying, which was done well when they are at the window looking at the battle, but the movie map was too big. But what was the real point of jojo witnessing the war? There would have been better ways in order to show the effect of the war other than him running around seeing the horror.

casting: rebel Wilson plays the same character in every movie I found. Her scenes I felt just took away from the power of the scenes. While I found jojo and hitler to be funny, rebel only made the scenes silly and not in the good way. And scarlett did a good job, but all I could see was black widow. I therefore found her character distracting and drawing attention to the fact that I was watching a movie, and i couldn't get lost in the movie. Scarlett and rebel didn't bring anything unique to the role, and I think any other actress could have done those roles just as well with more benefit to film. This is the downside of being too famous. Had they used ordinary but real German actors I think it would have gone a long way.

some of the actors were speaking in a French or british accent when they were meant to be German

Yorki was very cute, but they really could have used him differently. I feel that all his job was to look as cute as possible. He and no character arc or plot drive. If rebel Wilson's character used him to kamakazi himself then that would be powerful. I liked him, I just don't get why he was there.