Ah November, the time of remembrance, the full swing of Autumn and the month of telling people that it is NOT time to put your Christmas decorations up. However, as it is close to the month of many holidays, it is around this time that some holiday movies start to come out. Last year, The Grinch graced the silver screen in November, and this year, it seems that the early holiday release is a Netflix Original film called Klaus, which had a release in select theatres, but not in my city so I saw it on Netflix. Oh well.
I will say I was interested in this movie, a part of me wants to say that I kept my expectations in check because of other Netflix original films like Next Gen and Duck Duck Goose, yes Next Gen sucked, don't @ me. Sadly, those thoughts slipped my mind because, it looked interesting. After having just saw it, was it any good?
Plotwise, this movie is kind of predictable. I could peg that this movie would have the reveal, and the low-point and the get-together in the climax, it's pretty paint-by-numbers.
I should clarify here that because a plot is predictable or paint-by-numbers, doesn't mean the plot is bad. It just means that it isn't going to surprise you with any major development. A paint-by-numbers plot is not the be all and end all of a movie. I mean, I've seen The Princess Bride so many times I could recite it, but I still love watching that movie. The plot is but a mere ingredient for a movie, and like all ingredients it can be used well, used poorly, used a lot or used infrequently, something we love or something we aren't fond of...
So while the plot might have been predictable, that doesn't mean the movie as a whole is rubbish or lousy.
So, what about the other aspects of the movie?
Honestly, the movie is a bit of a slow burn character wise. The movie begins with all the characters being unlikable, even hateable. However, by the end of the movie we do start to get wrapped in the charm of things like the citizens of the town begrudgingly doing nice things for each other, and even some of the sacrifices they make. While I started off hating a bunch of the characters of this movie, by the end, I actually really liked them.
I will say though, some of the characters' speakings and mannerisms were very modern. I don't hate modernisms in movies like this, but they do kind of take me out of the experience a little. I don't think it took me out of the experience enough to fully lose me, but when these modernisms did occur they did take me a little out of the mood.
That being said though, I will say that the animation and art style was really good. When we got our first view of the town, it gave a German Expressionism vibe, a visual style used in the silent film era in a lot of German productions like Nosferatu. I feel like that is the visual style they aimed for, with the jagged and pointy architecture. Of course, the lighting is also incredible and some of the perspective shots in this movie are amazing. You really get the idea of the shots as well as them looking cool. The main art style of the movie also looked incredible, it reminded me a lot of the web animation titled "The Backwater Gospel", where you could barely tell whether the characters were 3D models or 2D drawings. I really like this style because it shows what you can accomplish with CG and how you can integrate traditional aesthetics with the modern technology.
Honestly, while I don't think Klaus was an incredible movie, I got to admit there is a lot to like here. While the plot was predictable, it was pretty solid, the characters became likeable, the animation and art style were great. Honestly, while I don't think this is my favourite of the Netflix Original releases this year, I will say it is pretty good. It is worth checking out, I think it is too early to really know if this will make my permanent Christmas watchlist, but who knows. Speaking of which...
Anyway, I think this is a good movie and it deserves a good recommendation rating.
This has been the Entity of Darkness and I'll see you next time at my humble little Odeon.
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