Rim of the World (2019)

May 25, 2019 7:18 PM

Four misfit teenagers join forces to save the world when an alien invasion interrupts their summer camp.
posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

This is some silly bullshit. McG directed this. I suspect Netflix thought they were getting Stranger Things meets Independence Day. I suspect McG thought he was bringing the embrace-the-schlock aesthetic he used on the much more enjoyable The Babysitter to a throwback foul-mouthed kids adventure. (This is a callback to those 80s films where twelve year olds joke about losing their virginity and jizz.)

This still has McG's made with a Crayola 16 pack visual energy and it hums along at a brisk pace. But a bright ten year old can call out every story beat in advance of it actually happening. I know this because we have a bright ten year old and he literally did that.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:23 PM on May 25, 2019 [6 favorites]

If you have kids and read everything I just wrote and still need to know, for practical reasons, how tolerable this is, consider it equivalent to something like a lesser Spy Kids sequel. It's corny and predictable, but it does approach kids with a modicum of interest and respect, so it may work for them.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:37 PM on May 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

I was actually pretty disappointed when the invasion started and all the outdoor shots were color-corrected to a spooky amber. Up to that point the movie at least looked fun and colorful, giving that up could only make it worse.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:31 PM on May 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Thanks for posting a thread. I was considering watching this, since it was showing up in my Netflix trending/popular section, but, sounds like I can safely give it a pass. (I watched "See You Yesterday" instead)
posted by oh yeah! at 5:06 PM on May 26, 2019

This is some silly bullshit.

Sold!
posted by Etrigan at 6:16 PM on May 26, 2019 [3 favorites]

It was a young persons' romp - a little more heavy than Spy Kids (so many open-eyed, bloodied corpses) - alot more violent (at least one decapitation).

But... how old should the target audience be? 9? 12?

It did hit the numbers, but it also felt like alot of Netflix movies - designed by an AI (or paint-by-numbers committee), taking bits that work elsewhere and gluing all the scenes together.
posted by jkaczor at 10:46 AM on May 27, 2019

This movie is irredeemably awful. It is my new Exhibit A in demonstrating the Mediocre White Male problem that plagues Netflix. McG, the director, and Zack Stentz, the writer, need to be put out to pasture. They are done, they have nothing to say that anyone needs to hear.

The dialogue was crude (especially considering the age of the characters and apparent target audience). They story was cobbled together out of scenes from better movies, jammed into the standard video game structure. The effects were mired deep in the uncanny valley between Sharknado-level cheese and competent effects anywhere else.

The way it handles the Asian girl is particularly galling.
posted by jimw at 9:29 PM on May 27, 2019 [3 favorites]

I watched it with my 9 year old and probably shouldn’t have-it was dumb and pretty inappropriate for his age and development. A weird mix of Goonir age kids with violence and sexual innuendo.
posted by purenitrous at 9:47 PM on May 28, 2019

Rethink your purchase, Etrigan, this silly is far far too wan.

Watched this last night because I was in the mood for fluff and I got worried at the 2/3 mark because so many things broke in such a way that it simply had to be headed towards it all being some sort of delusion of Alex's. I really wasn't up for how down that would have to be. But nope! Which, as it turns out, was actually worse. Now I have to confront how Zhenzhen really was written to be a plaything, for example, with that gross bed sharing scene (which certainly COULD have been sweet but... wasn't). Ugh.
posted by phearlez at 10:45 AM on May 29, 2019