GRAPHIC BY CHRISTINA QUACHBy ADRIAN HERNANDEZ
STAFF WRITER
A-X-L: one of the most incompetent, and confusing movies of the year!
On August 24, A-X-L hit theaters, featuring a story of a boy named Miles who finds a robotic dog named A-X-L, who is a top secret weapon owned by the U.S government. Throughout the story, the relationship between Miles and A-X-L grows, and dangerous situations involving both characters occur.
Altogether, A-X-L is a mediocre movie with a pointless plot line, emotionless acting, and weird story choices that make the movie confusing and boring.
Despite A-X-L’s good concept, there are many repetitive plot lines thrown out the window. For example, the first quarter of the movie establishes that Miles is a dirt bike racer and that is the only thing he could do for a living. This is never touched on again, even in the conclusion. Miles’ occupation could have created interesting scenarios if Miles needed to race, and A-X-L could have been exposed. As a result, the film exhibits an unprofessional feel. Many ideas for characters were left out, and this gives the idea that the writers did not give their full effort in writing the movie.
In addition, another major problem with this movie is the emotionless acting. There are some scenes that are generally realistic, but these occur at rare moments. As for the rest of the movie, both the main protagonist and the main antagonist are seemingly without emotion.
For instance, Miles has a romantic moment with Sara, his love interest. Throughout this scene Miles shows no expression of any emotions remotely close to love. This affects the movie because it feels like the actor put no effort into his acting. As a result, the lack of emotion during the film causes the audience to lose interest in the characters.
Nevertheless, there is a bigger problem that makes the movie worse: confusing story choices. For example, at the beginning of the film, the movie focuses on Miles being a dirt bike racer rather than A-X-L, the main character in this movie. A-X-L does start to show up yet only at the very beginning and toward the middle of the movie.
A-X-L’s absence during the beginning of the film makes the first part of the movie boring and confusing; furthermore, it seems like the creators of the movie started making one movie, then somewhere in the middle decided to change the entire premise. As a result, the movie’s quality is worsened, making it unprofessional and poorly written.
Even though these are major determinants to the movie, some may argue that the depth of the relationship between Miles and A-X-L is genuine and consistent throughout the movie. For instance, Miles and A-X-L both risk their lives for each other, which shows their loyalty to each other. This allows the audience to get invested in their relationship and the the story as a whole.
Nonetheless, the relationship between Miles and A-X-L is very rushed. Their relationship grows at the span of about three to five minutes. Consequently, it seems as if Miles and A-X-L have been best friends for years even though they just met.
In the end, A-X-L proves to be an amateur movie. The incoherent story, bland acting and awkward pacing ultimately makes the movie confusing and hard to understand at points.
