Wes Anderson likely saw Inception for the first time, said “hold my milk,” and Made Asteroid City. Good thing? Bad thing? I am not sure? Probably bad, because this movie wasn’t good, unlike Inception. It’s creative and cute from a creative’s perspective, but from a consumer and storytelling perspective, it’s worse than the Super Mario Bros Movie. Wes Anderson really out here making The Super Mario Bros Movie look like The Titanic. This will all make sense once you see the movie.
Listen. I was very intrigued from how Mr. Anderson decided to present the story. In fact, I even got a lot of what Wes was trying to say at certain moments with the creative framing, filmmaking, and set design. However, this movie is basically all art and no substance, which is usual for Wes Anderson, however, this was a bit too much. Especially, because, as it turns out, this story does have a message, but it’s SO intensely hidden even the main character proclaims at some point that he doesn;t understand the point of the story, which, again, turns out, IS the point of the story. Unfortunately, Asteroid City disappointed.
I really did enjoy the look and the aesthetic. I have only ever seen about two Wes Anderson movies with the intent to have seen most of, if not, all of his movies by now. So, perhaps I just need to watch more of his movies, but I have read other reviews and what I have concluded is that I am not broken, this wasn’t a good movie overall. On paper, this is a great, fun, inventive project to undertake, but the execution did NOT work out this time around.
Asteroid City gets a 5.