Movie Thoughts: Big Hero 6 (2014)

• Released: November 7, 2014
  
• Directed by: Don Hall, Chris Williams
• Running time: 1 h 42 min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A teenager struggling with loss named Hiro is aided by his brother's healthcare robot. The duo teams up with a bunch of others to stop a villain from misusing Hiro's inventions.

My Thoughts

Full disclosure that surprises no one: I don't like superhero media. At all. Even movies that generally get celebrated as the best examples of the genre I just...don't like. Spiderverse looks great but it couldn't get invested in it whatsoever, and I tried to watch The Dark Knight but it was so boring that I just had to turn it off and never looked back. I've also tried to watch a few Marvel movies here and there, but they're just absolutely not my cup of tea. So when I saw that Disney did its own animated superhero story I was less than thrilled to say the least.

And this movie definitely has a lot of the superhero tropes I can't stand. The people with superpowers/skills, the stopping of a boring over-the-top villain, the action scenes I can't get into, yet another uncomfortable as fuck-looking metropolis setting, etc. But I'm pleased to say that all the non-superhero stuff really makes up for the things I don't vibe with.

The emotional core of the story is really Hiro and his relationships to those around him. He loves his older brother Tadashi so much, and if of course devastated when he dies. But after that he does form new meaningful connections, namely with Tadashi's college buddies and especially the healthcare robot Baymax, who is trying his best to help Hiro grieve. This is where the movie excels. I like these characters (although they're pretty basic), and I like their relationships. The emotional core of the movie is really strong.

But it does suck that it has to come paired with the usual superhero tropes I just can't stand. I wish I could genuinely give this movie a higher rating because the emotional stuff that's good is really, really good. But for every good there's a bad.

And of course, the twist villain. This is definitely one of the worst examples, I even prefer Hans from Frozen over this doofus. If the villain hadn't been this bad, maybe I'd have given it four stars. But it's just...not. We get it, he's sad because of what happened to his daughter, but his motivation in blowing up the school (and Tadashi with it) just to get Hiro's robots for his own use is so convoluted. And there's no proper buildup to him being the main bad guy at all. They try to place a red herring with the businessman, but nope, it's the professor instead and the way his twist is written is just downright bad.

I will definitely praise the movie for its visuals, however. Even if I don't like big cities at all, San Fransokyo does look good, the character designs are distinct and the animation is top-notch as is to be expected by Disney.

I'm giving this movie the same rating as Frozen. I will say that I personally like Frozen more because, despite its flaws, it's still not a superhero movie but rather a fantasy (aka one of my favorite genres) and I generally enjoyed it more. If I did give out quarter-star ratings like I do with my book reviews, I'd give this movie a 3.25/5, but since I don't I'll round it up to a 3.5 because the stuff that is good is actually really good. 

If you like superhero movies, more power to you and you will probably like this fine, but by now I've come to realize it's just a genre that doesn't work for me at all. There's no doubt some good in other superhero movies just like this one, but I just can't bring myself to watch them. I only watched this one because it's a part of my Disney Journey where I review all their main-canon movies. So overall I consider this movie good in some respects, but very dull and sometimes even bad in others.