Film Review: Paul

Not exactly the Steven Spielberg tribute people had in mind heading into this year, with Super 8 still three months away, but Paul offers us purely and organically what most films this years have failed at. This isn't exactly a great piece of filmmaking, but for once we can't really mark that against it. Most times this year, films set the bar way too high for itself, like going for an epic gritty war film with Battle: Los Angeles, or a stylistic twist on the superhero genre with The Green Hornet. Both of those films overreached and failed, but Paul sets readily achievable goals for itself and deliver an enjoyable science fiction confection for those looking for some fresh entertainment.

The film follows two British comic book geeks, Clive and Graeme, who are on holiday in America checking out comic con and famous UFO hot-spots. En route to Area 51, they witness a horrific car accident, and out of the wreckage comes Paul, a gray-green alien whose stay on earth has gone beyond what he payed for. The two nerds team up with Paul to get him to the rendezvous point where his race is waiting to pick him up, and along the way they pick up Christian fanatic Ruth, played with gleeful abandon by Kristen Wiig. Even further complicating matters, they are sought after by two rookie FBI agents, Ruth's crazy father on "a mission from God", and the mysterious Lorenzo Zoil.

This is a fun science-fiction road trip film about a group of people thrown into a situation where they become great friends. Nick Frost and Simon Pegg play the main duo, so they have the best friend chemistry locked firmly down for any adventure they partake in. Seth Rogen's voice is strangely perfect for the titular character, offering a sort of charisma that usually goes beyond voice acting. Jason Bateman actually comes off as a believable bad-ass in the role of Agent Zoil. The true gem of this film is Kristen Wiig, who is always in a position to steal the show from her fellow actors. This film offers the perfect catalyst for her crazy adorable brand of humor. Of course, some may say this feature lacks something, but only because it doesn't reach out for anything more than it gets.

Frost and Pegg also wrote the film, and there's a certain intelligence to their brand of humor, bringing in the religious implications of an alien encounter without coming off as pretentious or radically offensive, but still never quite sticking the landing. Composer David Arnold is second to none when it comes to scoring action sequences, as he established in the underrated Quantum of Solace. Not to say he's amongst the greatest composers, but he's well suited to a specific style, and he just scrapes below his regular work here. I should also say that the visual effects on Paul were pretty great without being quite photo-realistic. It's less a Spielberg tribute than you might think, but Paul is an earnest entertainer, even if it fails to impress on more than a few aspects.

C+