Netflix premiered its Skydance Animation feature from Pixar legend Brad Bird (“The Incredibles,” “The Iron Giant,” “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”) this weekend, a full two months before the film hits Netflix in December.
Unfortunately, the reviews haven’t painted a great picture. While the overall sentiment toward the film is quite positive, with a lot of praise for its worldbuilding, the actual story and characters are getting a much more mixed reception.
With just 14 reviews counted, the film sits at a strong 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, but its 7.4/10 average rating suggests it’s not getting wide love. Here’s a sampling of reviews to see for yourself:
“Bird and co-screenwriter Matthew Robbins have crafted an impeccable script where every small world-building detail they introduce pays off by the finale, the chaotic energy of the story hiding just how neatly, meticulously constructed it all is.” – Alistair Ryder, The Film Stage
“Its strong animation, likable characters, and nods to classic genre tropes will hopefully be the building blocks that get the next generation of cinephiles creeping down “Noir Alley” on TCM. For that alone, “Ray Gunn” is an achievement.” – Giovanni Lago, Next Best Picture
“You don’t have to be a fan of noir and Dark City detective yarns to appreciate the story, and it doesn’t matter if you aren’t a sci-fi aficionado either. The human/alien blend ‘blends’ and helps to make this Skydance Animation production an entertaining proposition for adults and even their kids who get dragged to see it, rather than the usual other way around for ‘toons.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline
“Bird’s mystery zigs and zags breathlessly as it probes multiple murders connected to a femme fatale-styled starlet in the imaginary city of Metropia; it’s consistently nifty, even when it feels less than original. But it it’s never quite as funny as it should be, while its characters… want for texture and soul” – Guy Lodge, Variety
“It’s a blandly palatable jumble of sci-fi and neo-noir clichés, not so much awful as underwhelming. Lacking in both visual pop and emotional specificity, it’s a forgettable entry in an otherwise rich career” – Angie Han, THR
“Imaginative action meets confounding plotting and shallow metaphors… resulting in clunky drama overtaking the eye-popping details.” – Siddhant Adlakha, AV Club
“Ray Gunn is highly entertaining and lovely to look at, but lacks that emotional resonance Bird achieved with his previous work.” – Germain Lussier, io9
The story unfolds in Metropia, a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939. Private eye Raymond Gunn, the last human private detective in a futuristic world, is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder, and a multimedia star named Venus Nova.
Oscar winner Sam Rockwell stars as Raymond Gunn alongside Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson as Venus Nova and actor Tom Waits as Eyera. Bird co-wrote the screenplay with Matthew Robbins, while John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Lisa Beroud, David Ellison, and Dana Goldberg produce.
“Ray Gunn” is expected to hit the service in mid-December.
