Movie Thoughts: The Sea Beast (2022)

• Released: June 8, 2022
  
• Directed by: Chris Williams
  
• Running time: 1 h 55 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

In a world where pirate-like hunters are dedicated to exterminating all sea monsters, an orphan and a legendary hunter end up accidentally befriending one of the sea creatures. They now must prove to the world that co-existing with these beasts in peace is possible, in order to save their new aquatic friend, the Red Bluster.

My Thoughts

 Per usual, this Movie Thoughts contains spoilers.

I legit heard absolutely nothing about this movie before it came out. No trailers, no teasers, no previews, no nothing. Then it released and it popped up on my Twitter timeline once or twice, and it instantly peaked my interest. I don't review or watch them much, but I do have a fondness for pirate-esque movies. I grew up loving the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies (reviews incoming at a later date) and of course Treasure Planet. I myself funnily enough detest the sea and boats/ships, so I'd never like to go on a sea-faring adventure myself, but I do like it in movies, especially if it has some good characters. Such is the case as The Sea Beast.

The movie is overall just really solid. I am literally just shy of giving it four stars, I'll elaborate on why I didn't in the end later. But first I just want to gush a bit. Starting with the visuals. This is definitely one of the best animated Netflix movies out there to this date. Holy shit, it looks so good. The animation, the environments, the water particles, the character designs especially, it's fantastic. I could just get lost in this world based on the visuals alone.

But good visuals does not a good movie make. However, luckily there's also other things in this movie that's very good. For starters, the characters are also fantastic, particularly our two leads (Maisie the orphan girl and Jacob the legendary sea beast hunter) and the villain, Captain Crow. The side characters were usually also pretty good, even with the limited time they were given. But the formerly mentioned three really steal the show.

Maisie starts out as wanting to be come a hunter herself, like her late parents, and is 100% dedicated to this task, but she still has a pretty open mind and is the first to realize that the sea creatures aren't actually monsters. Jacob is a legendary hunter and the adopted son of the even more legendary Captain Crow. At first, Jacob is obviously more worried about keeping up his reputation, but once he sees how Red isn't all that monstrous he comes around pretty soon, albeit reluctant at first. 

Finally, for our villain: Captain Crow. He's pretty damn good, actually. I like how he starts off in the story not as a villain at all, just as a captain dedicated to his task, maybe a bit overly so. But across the span of the movie, especially when he thinks the Red Bluster has killed Jacob, he turns mad with the idea of vengeance. And then when it turns out Jacob is still alive, but has changed his ways on hunting, Crow understandably feels very betrayed.

He's in the wrong here, but he's dedicated so much of his life to hunting and raising his son as a hunter that at this point that this feels like it goes against everything he's ever known, and the viewer sees where he's coming from. And I like that his fate is pretty vague in the end. He does listen to Jacob's and Maisie's speech about peace, and once the main duo leaves we do see him put down his sword, but nothing more. No reunion between him and his adopted son, no big ending revelation of him. Just a subtle visual of him dropping his sword. Honestly so much stronger and subtle than if they had forced him through a big turnaround moment. 

So why not give the movie the four stars rating? Honestly, there's just some small hiccups in the writing and pacing that hold it back for me. The character's relationships forming feels a bit rushed (such as the father-daughter bond between Jacob and Maisie, and the friendship between them and Red) and the writing also just makes things feel very fast. And the movie already has a long running span, so I get why they couldn't take even longer, but at the same time it doesn't feel as genuine and earned as the bond between, say, Hiccup and Toothless in How to Train Your Dragon. There, the Viking-dragon duo had a longer time to bond, but with there being little to no time skips in The Sea Beast it feels like this bond between Maisie, Jacob and this thing they perceive as a giant killer monster is just a bit too rushed for it to feel genuine. 

Also, speaking of Toothless, I've seen people compare the designs of Red and him, saying that Red looks like a larger aquatic version of him, but I honestly gotta disagree outside of very basic shape structure. Red's face is much wider, her eyes much smaller, etc. Toothless is also very expressive, whereas Red keeps pretty much the same face throughout the entire film. So I think these claims are not completely untrue, but definitely a bit exaggerated. 

Overall this is a really good movie and I absolutely recommend it! It's really just the pacing issues that makes the central bond between our main characters and the monster feel less genuine that's holding me back from rating it higher, especially since said bond is the crux of the entire story.