Film Preview: Missing Link (2019)

Page Revisions:

(January 6, 2019) Original
(February 10, 2019) New Trailer (#2)
(April 7, 2019) New Posters (#3-#4)

Release Date:

April 12, 2019

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “The charismatic Sir Lionel Frost considers himself to be the world’s foremost investigator of myths and monsters. The trouble is none of his small-minded high-society peers seems to recognize this. Sir Lionel’s last chance for acceptance by the adventuring elite rests on traveling to America’s Pacific Northwest to prove the existence of a legendary creature. A living remnant of Man’s primitive ancestry. The Missing Link.”

Poster Rating: C- / D / C+ / B-

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) It introduces the character, but isn’t a particularly attractive design. (#2) Even less appealing with its dull white background and not particularly interesting foreground.

(#3) A nice, adventurous backdrop and a fine vision of the main characters. Otherwise it’s unimpressive. (#4) So many vistas to see. So little time. It’s sparse, but it works well enough.

Trailer Rating: C+ / C+

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) If you didn’t know this film was produced by Laika, you might think it was a cheap knock-off of one and that’s not a helpful direction. There are some modestly funny parts, but not enough.

(#2) A lot of the bits that are in the first trailer are here as well and that makes for a duplicated effort that tends to be a bit boring. There are a few new bits, which helps, but it doesn’t mitigate the familiarity.

Oscar Prospects:

Laika is the single most consistent animation studio in Oscar history, earning Oscar nominations for every film its ever produced. I see little reason to believe that will not continue. Someday they will win, but probably not soon.