Short review: style over substance.

Longer, more rantish bit:

The new Wes Anderson film, The Life Aquatic, has gotten "eh" reviews from a majority of the American press, and with good reason. It opens up in the familiar post-Rushmore-theatre-play sense of the recent Wes Anderson films and is visually "retro", so you think "the quirky fun is about to begin and I'm in for a treat". Well...visually, perhaps. The sets of the ship scream 60s-70s. It's almost too much for the typical modern indie thrift-store shopping, antique decorating 20-something to handle. On top of that, it seems to be a good excuse to play as many David Bowie songs as possible (though a Zombies tune and a Stooges tune here and there are a thankful delight). The thing is, our protagonist, Steve Zissou (played by Bill Murray), is a complete prick, and not the clever, smart-mouthed kind. He's just a prick. The basic plot in the film is to find the shark that killed his friend and get revenge, but they toss in a predictable romance plot and then it gets almost a bit too random for random's sake. The CG is incredibly bad (though that might be on purpose), but the set's are nice.

SO...if you're looking forward to a Wes Anderson film that's pretty close to a parody of his previous films, look no further: The Life Aquatic will be there soon.

-jonathan

ps. There ARE funny moments in the film, and if you're curious about hearing David Bowie's greatest hits in acoustic Portugese...you might like it. I just think it's the director's weakest film and I can only recommend it with a large group of friends (who happen to love David Bowie...not that I don't like him. I do. It's just a bit much).