In 1984, a groundbreaking film was released about a hero sent from the future into the present with the intention of saving the human race from total annihilation. That hero was the valiant Reese in James Cameron's "The Terminator."
Now, in 2007, the hero is a stuffed bunny.
"The Last Mimzy," directed by Robert Shaye, is a new children's film coming to theatres March 23.
When the nearly perfect Wilder family visits their vacation house on Whitby Island, the children, Noah (Chris O'Neil) and Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn), stumble upon a mysterious box of "goodies" abandoned on the shore. The box includes a glowing green stone, a wobbly blue gob that almost resembles a giant slug and a stuffed bunny rabbit.
These trinkets of the future give the children suspicious superpowers, which spark an interest in Noah's hippie science teacher. When combined, the green stone and blue gob cause a surge of energy, creating a power outage that stifles the FBI. The rocks spin in the air and form a purplish haze in which little Emma can see the future.
O'Neil and Wryn are virtually brand new to movies, this being O'Neil's first film and Wryn's second (she had a minimal part in Ang Lee's "Hulk"). Shaye's lack of directing experience is painfully obvious, but lucky for him, children, the film's target audience, will not likely notice the production flaws.
The Wilder parents are played by Joely Richardson ("The Patriot") and Timothy Hutton ("The Good Shepherd"). The only face you might immediately recognize, however, is that of the behemoth Michael Clarke Duncan ("School for Scoundrels"), who holds down the role of the senior FBI anti-terrorist officer.
"The Last Mimzy" is Shaye's second go around as the man behind the camera. Although he is an amateur director, Shaye has been long exposed to movies of the fantasy genre, assuming the titles of co-chairman and co-CEO of New Line Cinema. He also produced Peter Jackson's Oscar winning "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and dabbled in acting and writing over his long career.
The concept of the film is sound, although the plot is convoluted. Mimzy, the name of stuffed bunny, can only communicate its message through Emma. Mimzy is the final of many missions sent back through time to save the future. "Mimzy" includes superfluous references to Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," as well as a storybook connection to old Tibetan art.
Behind the CGI special effects, child acting and corny one-liners, there is a definite message in this movie that is egregiously shoved down viewers' throats. Take care of the Earth now and stop polluting so that people of the world thousands of years from now won't have to send stuffed toys to us to deliver the message.
Unfortunately, the movie does not make any realistic propositions on how to solve this growing world problem. But then again, we have Al Gore for that.
