Where do you go after 11 years of playing one of the most iconic superheros in cinema? You play a new kind of hero, whose superpower is communication, which is what we need most right now. “Damn, he’s got a good publicist” a friend of mine replied after I recounted that bit RDJr stated in a recent interview.
RDJr takes Dolittle back to his roots, some time back in the English countryside, tending to a variety of animals that he communicates with in their own language. But of course we hear those animals in a variety of celebrity voices (John Cena, Octavia Spencer, Kumail Nanjiani, Rami Malek, and way too many more). Because of reasons he has to go on a voyage to a distant and possibly mythical place, and of course he brings the entire menagerie with him. And also a little kid who is apparently not missed by his parents.
I was with this movie for about twenty minutes. I am a huge animal lover, and also a big fan of many of the voice actors, so I was loving all the cuteness explosions and clever one liners. For a little while I was able to overlook the many (MANY) plotholes and story issues because I was being entertained by the creatures. And then at some point, I was just done. I got bored. The clever dialog got more sparse (and more obvious that it was pieced together and not assembled coherently). Not only could I no longer justify the writing issues, they were starting to grate on me. Simply put, this was a misfire on just about every level.
Dolittle – \m/ \m/