The 'Captain America' Conundrum As 'Ne Zha 2' Is The Biggest Toon Ever and More!
The very reasons why 'Brave New World' might leg out better than 'Ant-Man 3' are the same reasons its weaker-than-hoped reception is a giant-sized problem for theaters.
Ne Zha 2 mini-review - Pro tip: (Re)watch Ne Zha first!
The intertwined (box office) fates of Ne Zha 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash…
Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown are two of the bigger Oscar flicks of 2024.
Even if Captain America: Brave New World legs out, it won’t compensate for the lack of tentpole competition.
Ne Zha 2 is… yeah, it’s fucking awesome.
It took longer than it should have, but I finally saw Ne Zha 2. My younger kids flaked out, but my oldest (who had seen the first one with me in Imax in September 2019) happily came along. First, I would strongly advise you to rewatch (or watch for the first time) the original Ne Zha, as it more-or-less hits the ground running and assumes you have a halfway decent memory of what transpired in the initial adventures of the Ne Zha and Ao Bing.
However, once the film’s present-tense plot takes shape, with Ne Zha and Ao Bing now inhabiting the same body (Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin would be proud) and being tasked with completing three challenges to procure the necessary stuff to give both friends-turned-enemies-turned-friends physical bodies, knowing what came before is of less importance. As befits the 144-minute runtime and allegiance to Xu Zhonglin’s Investiture of the Gods, there’s more “how and why” exposition than required. This sometimes makes the film seem more confusing than it is.
However, the broad strokes work on a melodramatic level. There’s a mild “fake out death” halfway through whose reveal results in a heartbreaking explosion of pent-up emotion. Meanwhile, the action and fantastical spectacle deliver on a level that, for example, puts The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim and even Moana 2 to shame. Alongside its other virtues, Ne Zha 2 makes a case for being the biggest animated feature film ever made (in scope, scale, and size of its setpieces and “production value”).
It’s more conventionally constructed than Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but that’s the only one that, I’d argue, plays in the same sandbox. I’ll assume any conversation about the film’s “mere” $80 million budget will involve the same discourse about wages, labor protections and exchange rates that should follow any mention of Godzilla: Minus One’s “mere” $15 million production spend. Nonetheless, even without getting into demographically specific relevance and/or event film status, this is a towering, occasionally overwhelming big-screen spectacle of the highest order. It’s both universally appealing and culturally specific.
I can see why this bigger and wonkier sequel is setting box office records worldwide, especially coming off the terrific and surprising Ne Zha. Again, the comparison that comes to mind is Shrek 2 and Avatar: The Way of Water, and I mean that as a compliment. If I can convince my other two kids to come, I might try to see it again, but only after rewatching the first film. So, nitpicks and personal preferences notwithstanding, this one lived up to the hype.