Movie Thoughts: Peter Rabbit (2018)

• Released: February 9, 2018
  
• Directed by: Will Gluck
  
• Running time: 1 h 35 min
• Rating 3/5

Synopsis

A mischievous rabbit dead-set on robbing the local mansion's garden gets confronted with the fact that the woman he values a lot falls in love with the mansion's owner. He must now choose between his instincts to rob the garden or to grant Bea happiness with her new partner.

My Thoughts

For the record, I have 0 attachment to the Beatrix Potter books. I legit thought that the original Peter Rabbit product wasn't a book but the 2012 CGI TV-series, so I didn't even know that this was originally based on children's books. But oh well.

I feel like this movie and its sequel are probably more modern adaptations with a slight hint of meta to them. I think Bea (the woman Peter and his family care about) is supposed to be Beatrix Potter herself, or at least an insert for her in the movie's universe. In the movies, she writes the books and paints the iconic pictures of the rabbits, for example, which would lead one to think that she's supposed to be the original author. But, again, I'm not familiar with the original books at all and never read them, so I might be far off.

This movie is honestly just mostly bland. Sure, it looks good, particularly the CGI on the rabbits and other animals, but other than that there's little of substance to be found here. The conflict is very low-stakes, the characters one-note with very basic arcs, the humor didn't stick the landing and generally I just don't care, which is of course the opposite of what a movie is supposed to do with a viewer.

I could go more in-depth here, but the former paragraph really does just sum things up. None of the characters really stood out. Sure, some of them have basic character arcs and development, but it's so bare bones that the viewer just doesn't really care. Peter is mischievous, and it's quite obnoxious to never see him learn his lesson up until it's too late as he keeps making more and more messes for not just him but also his family, even blowing up their home at one point. His rivalry with McGregor is also really bland and neither character was really likable in my opinion.

I at least get why Bea likes Peter, since he's a rabbit and (presumably) she can't hear anything he says, but McGregor? This boring dry beanstalk of a man? She loves nature and all things that live and grow, meanwhile he is so obviously lying about his interests in these things and his love for wildlife, yet Bea somehow buys it? And we're supposed to believe that Bea is dumb enough to not see through his lies? And of course, even discounting these facts, the romance between Bea and McGregor was just so bland and forgettable. This is a prime example of "characters get together because the plot demands it for the sake of conflict".

Peter's family are honestly just there most of the time. They are so bare-bones and basic in their character traits that they feel more like accessories to Peter to assist him in some scenes rather than genuine characters with their own arcs and development. There's some very (very) minor subplots involving them (Benjamin deciding whether or not to help Peter in the climax and the sisters squabbling about who is the oldest) but other than that there's literally nothing for them to do other than just be Peter's tag-along team.

So other than it looking good, the rest of this movie is painfully average. It's not offensively bad, but very mid all the same.