evan unmighty

After much prodding, I finally caved and picked up a copy of Evan Almighty from the local library. My mother was recently at our house for a visit and insisted that we simply must see it. In the movie, God asks Steve Carel (Evan) to build an ark, and starts to assemble animals from around the globe in Evan's suburban mcmansion neighborhood. When I heard the movie name, and that it starred Steve Carel, I told her that it must be a spin-off of the movie Bruce Almighty. She argued that it certainly wasn't. She was adamant - almost defensive. I don't know what the big deal was, but after seeing it, I don't understand how she could think that it wasn't a spin-off. We have the same character playing God (Morgan Freeman), and the main character Evan has just left his job as a news anchor (the same job he had in Bruce Almighty) to be a congressman. Even his co-anchor is the same actress. Geez.

Regardless, the movie stunk. Sure, it is "okay" for a family flick, but I found the humor to be trite, the plot too predictable, and overall Steve Carel wasn't that funny. It's also worth mentioning that the movie is over-the-top in its flagrant use of digital imaging and computer animation. I understand that a movie production crew isn't going to build a massive ark and fill it with a pair of each species of animal on earth, but certain scenes (like when the dam breaks) looked ridiculously contrived. I can understand why they're starting to make pseudo-realistic movies that are fully computer animated (think Beowulf). After all, real movies are filled with this stuff. But why stop there? Why not get rid of the real actors altogether and just use their voices? Oh, wait...that's already been done, too. Ever see The Mummy Returns with its CG-rendered Rock? Wasn't that Angelina Jolie in Beowulf?