Aquamarine

I took my daughter 5 and son 8 to see Aquamarine yesterday after school. I didn't go in expecting to see an Oscar worthy movie as many who rated this movie must have. Both of my kids really enjoyed the movie and I did as well. I thought the plot was good and the acting was pretty good as well. I liked the magical feel that this movie had and at least it lets kids use their imagination instead of just the same old boring stuff. How Aquamarine could ever have a lower user rating than Ultraviolet is a crime against humanity. I am glad that several of the user comments that I have read appreciate this movie for what it is, a movie for your kids and that the parents will enjoy also.

I took my nine-year-old sister to see this movie today. It was between this movie and Chicken Little, and she admitted she wanted to see this more, so that was fine with me. Remembering the display of ultimate mediocrity that was A Cinderella Story, one of the last movies we saw in the theater together, I was prepared to hate and be bored by this movie. That is to say, I went in expecting crappy dialogue, a predictable yet forced and contrived plot, and acting that ranged from mediocre to awful. Its having below a 3.0 on IMDb (compared to A Cinderella Story's 5.2) certainly didn't help matters.

And I have to say . . . I was pleasantly surprised. Not because the dialogue was brilliant, the plot was novel, and the acting was amazing. It was just all better than what I expected. Okay, a lot of the dialogue was pretty cheesy, and you can see the "plot twists" coming a mile away. But I have to admit, I chuckled out loud a couple of times, and as for the acting, it wasn't NEARLY as bad as what Ms. Duff had led me to expect from these young women. Actually, this movie turned out to be, dare I say, slightly charming at times, and even when the mermaid annoyed me with her unfunny quips about life on land versus life in the sea (which was at least half of the time she was on screen), the other two main characters were actually fun to watch together. They're not future Judi Denchs in the making, and probably not even future Keira Knightleys or Natalie Portmans in the making, but I'd GLADLY choose them over Hilary Duff any day of the week.

And this is the real reason why I'm commenting here. I can understand that if you didn't go into the movie knowing how tweeny it was going to be, you would loathe it with your entire soul. I don't really know how that would happen, considering who two out of three of the leads are, but still . . . if that's what happened to you, I understand. But come on . . . this movie was not worse than A Cinderella Story, so please, let's stop rating it as such. A Cinderella Story was less charming, less unique, and less valuable in the "What Lessons Can We Learn From These Characters?" Department than Aquamarine by a long shot.

So, do I think this was a good movie? Well, I'm 21, so that's pretty much impossible. Like I said . . . thin and predictable. But is it a BAD movie? No. It accomplishes what it sets out to do. My little sister loved it, and I can see why. Therefore I give this movie not a 10 or a 1 but a 5, that is, a rating of perfect mediocrity. If you know a girl between the ages of 8 and 13, feel free to take her to see it, because she'll probably love it, and honestly, you're not going to mind it all that much. I promise.

Even though I was forced to watch this with younger siblings, I actually enjoyed myself. Besides the movie Splash which was made years ago, I don't think there has been many mermaid movies. This one, although a little bit on the cheesy side, had a pretty good underlying message. Graphics were not extraordinary, but they weren't terrible. Jojo turned out to be a sarcastic, funny actress and Sara Paxton did a pretty good job on being the clueless mermaid. Emma Roberts was a little bit rusty on acting, but she can sure tear up. Yea it was cheesy, but what'd you expect, at least it wasn't unbearably cheesy. It was really just cute and I enjoyed watching it with my siblings.

Aquamarine By Dean Kish For hundreds of years we have been fascinated with the nautical myth that there are beings in the oceans who are ½ fish and ½ woman. They are always young, beautiful and completely naive. Some classic films have captivated this obsession. The first biggest and most memorable film was the classic 1984 comedy "Splash" which really brought the myth back into the fore-front of our minds. Next was 1989's "The Little Mermaid" which stole our hearts and re-launched Disney's animation division.

Probably the most obscure reference and the most bizarre use of the mermaid myth was used in the short-lived TV series, "Maximum Bob" where an ultra right-wing judge (Beau Bridges) marries a psychic mermaid-performer (Kiersten Warren). There are a lot of scenes with Warren in an aquarium and dressed in her fish tail.

OK I have covered the biggest to the most obscure which brings me to "Aquamarine".

"Aquamarine" is a light-hearted preteen comedy about a naive mermaid, Aquamarine (Sara Paxton) who comes ashore to uncover the human myth called love. Helping her in finding this mythical emotion are two best friends, Claire and Hailey (Emma Roberts and JoJo), who befriend the mermaid. It turns out that the friends maybe separated forever when Hailey moves away. Aquamarine promises them a wish if they help her find true love so the girls, desperate to stay together, help her out.

This film is probably not a classic or will be fondly remembered in five years but for the audience it is aimed at it succeeds on many levels. I liked the performances of Emma Roberts and Sara Paxton. I even warmed up to JoJo a little.

What I kept saying as the film went on was how these three girls looked like junior versions of established actors. I felt that Paxton reminded me a lot of a younger Reese Witherspoon and Roberts reminded me some of her aunt, Julia Roberts. JoJo did also remind me of Lindsay Lohan but there isn't much of an age difference between them so you can't really say junior version.

I think that Paxton and Roberts have a lot of potential in their Hollywood careers. JoJo could have a career in film but does she have the ability to manage music and film like say, Hilary Duff. Only time will tell.

"Aquamarine" is a great little film if you have girls who are between 8 and 15 but other than that I can't really recommend it to anyone else. But you have to give it marks for succeeding so well in a pinch demographic. (3.5 out of 5) So Says the Soothsayer (dwkish@shaw.ca)

I promised my sister I would take her to a movie for her birthday and buy her popcorn a few weeks ago, and today was the day we settled on. I was pushing for Failure to Launch or She's the Man, but my sister was determined to see Aquamarine. So fifteen dollars later we were all nestled in. The movie starts off extremely slow and was, in my opinion, painful to watch. I must admit I was much more entertained with thinking of ways that I could sneak in to The Hills Have Eyes, which was playing at the theater across from ours. But in the end I stayed for the movie, giving me plenty of time to think over my criticisms. I think Emma Roberts (timid and diminutive Claire) may be a rare star who started out acting fairly well and is getting worse. I thought her early Unfabulous days were good, but now I can barely stand to watch the show. Her over-the-top mugging drives me insane. I wasn't expecting much out of JoJo (bold and strong Hailey) at all. I knew it wasn't exactly fair writing her off for being a singer, but that's what I did. And I was extremely, pleasantly surprised. She did a great job, I thought. I wasn't expecting much from Sara Paxton (the titular mermaid Aquamarine) judging by the painful "I see we're going to have to take this slow: Mer Maid" in the trailers, but she ended up doing okay. All in all, it wasn't a great movie, but it picks up in the second half and finishes well, so it was a pretty decent way to spend almost two hours on a cold Saturday afternoon. Although next time, I think I'll pick the movie.