After a string of garden gnome disappearances in London, Gnomeo & Juliet look to legendary detective Sherlock Gnomes to solve the case of their missing friends and family.
The successful film "Gnomeo and Juliet" brought in a fresh new approach to popular stories by combining a well known classic with a strange twist - depicting the characters and the scenery as garden gnomes and a garden... Make of this what you will but personally I thought the first film was actually fairly decent. If that was because I was a bit younger then so be it. But when the sequel "Sherlock Gnomes" was in cinemas, I knew I had to watch it just to see if it was as good as the predecessor.
I'll start off by emphasising that this is no 'bite your fingernails nervous' Jurassic World or a thriller like ''Marvel Infinity War'. But what this film does really well is to act like a normal family film for everyone to enjoy, you won't find any typical shoot outs or destructive scenes here (apart from a few plant pots) but what you will see is a feel good family film. This is a good point about the film I really want to emphasise, it is purely a feel good, innocent family film and no more than that.
I really enjoyed the scene that was chosen for the film, I feel that the new garden in London not only gave the characters a new breath of life, but it also gave the viewers a nice perspective of what 4 gnomes going through night time China town would look like! I really strongly believe that the scenery for the film was perfectly chosen and really helped to keep the film interesting, as the characters were always moving around and navigating to another locations; again keeping the film fresh throughout. Linking to the scene I was really impressed with the characters and how they were represented too throughout the film, I feel that there was a good variety of characters that were comical and humorous but didn't try too hard to relate to current trends or to have a relationship with the audience. This allowed the audience to have a relatively easy time getting to know the different characters on display.
The use of a side story and sudden plot twists also ensured that the film was kept engaging for the audience, but not too confusing so that it became difficult to decipher what was going on between the different side stories. This was something I really appreciated. The constant links between the two groups of characters was a good way of engaging with the audience and also ensured that the audience was kept well up to date with what was going on in the film too, which I liked as many other films fall into the trap of having too many side stories that it becomes confusing and frustrating for the audience to keep up. What I found especially interesting was the emotional impact that the film had on the audience, and even me! I found myself laughing for some parts of the film and really intrigued to see what would happen next for other parts, the film was able to manage both of these emotions and even though I was left unsurprised by the happy ending with the main characters re-coupling I was still impressed by the emotional connection that the film had with the audience. The scenes with the gargoyles were also tense and enjoyable, and I found myself much more interested in the film when one of these characters were involved as they tended to be both intimidating but also comical and humorous at the same time.
I feel that the main issue with the film is probably to do with me (very hard for me to say), but I feel that it slightly ruined the film for me that I am not really the targeted audience for the film and slightly out of the age range intended for this film which is a slight shame! However I can't blame myself entirely, there were some issues to be had with the film too, it wasn't completely my fault! I had no idea about the film even coming out until I saw the advert on the wall of the cinema, the film's marketing was terrible on point and I feel the a-list stars such as Johnny Depp and Michael Caine could've been used more to get the knowledge out about the film more. However I wasn't too impressed with the relationship between Gnomeo and Juliet, I was just left feeling a bit cheesy about the whole situation status between the two characters as it was very cliche - although the film is intended for children so that's probably why... And even though I feel Depp shone through with his voice acting, I was just feeling a little bit let down with the plot of the film and the relationship between the characters and the plot. Everything in the storyline was very typical, and something we've seen all before which to be honest left the film a little bit boring, apart for some moments which I've mentioned. I found a few 'goofs' in the film too, for example in one scene a toy gets his arm pulled off but in the next scene it is back on, even though he hasn't moved, and I feel that example sums the attention to detail that was shown in this film really. The plot could've been stretched and changed so much to make it somewhat different and unique, but unfortunately this just wasn't the case, and this left me feeling a little frustrated as I feel the film really could have been a success if the producers would have taken a gamble or a leap. But they wanted to stay in the safe zone which for this film left them behind.
I am a little surprised by the especially low ratings that other peopel have given this film as I honestly didn't feel it was that bad, the graphics and animation were really good. I thoroughly enjoyed the choice of location and the switches in storyline to keep the audience somewhat entertained. Even the inclusion of Johnny Depp and mixing in the film with an awesome Sherlock Holmes and Watson which I feel was a move in the right direction, but the lack of risk and chance in this films plot and overall structure for me is what brings the film down and ensures that the film is overall a flop. Not a massive flop, but a flop nonetheless, I am interested to see if there will be a sequel to this film with another story combination as I would love to see if they do decide to take a risk or if they will call it a day with the gnomes!
Overall I would rate this film a 6.5, I cannot say that I enjoyed a film and that it is a good film if I was left somewhat bored and predicting the every move of each character but I feel the score is fair and represents the good things about the film too. However maybe this is just because the film was not aimed towards me, maybe for a young child it may have been awesome.
Thank you for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! I would also like to say thank you to the people who have subscribed to my website too, it is much appreciated that people are enjoying my posts as much as I enjoy watching the films and posting my opinions.
Have a nice day. :)
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