Formulated

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2016)

This movie was...pretty good. Its not worthy of an 8.2 average user rating (as of the time of writing this review) though. I don't wanna spoil anything for anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet so I won't go into much detail.
First, let me say I don't hate this movie. On a technical level this film is truly remarkable. The animation is gorgeous and some aspects of it are even photorealistic. Dwayne Johnson's voice fits Maui's character very well, and all the other voice actors were good too. Some ideas were really cool like how the water is a character and Maui's tattoos can tell stories. Some of the songs weren't bad, either. Except for that obvious "Let It Go" ripoff.
My big problem with the movie is its story. Its way too formulaic. I could predict pretty much every major plot point as the film unfolded. If you've ever seen a Disney movie, you know what's going to happen. A character loses something dear to them but it is conveniently restored later. An antagonist has a quirky song number that isn't as catchy or majestic as ones sung by the main characters. There's the quirky sidekick that serves no purpose to the plot besides being useful in one brief moment of one scene. Every character with some flawed personality trait is perfectly resolved. At one point I thought to myself "we're overdue for a musical number, aren't we?" and literally 10 seconds after I thought that, a musical number started. I could go on about various aspects that Yes, anyone who's seen the movie will tell you its somewhat self-aware, but recognizing the issue does not change the fact that it still suffers from it.
If you wanna see it, feel free to, but don't expect anyone over age 12 to have their mind blown. Yes the animation is amazing and the Polynesian setting is unique for Disney, but the story is one we've seen dozens of times before. 6.5/10