Review of The Call of the Wild (2020) by Compi24 — 26 Feb 2020

Never mind the laughable CGI. Doing so would neglect the critical issue at the crux of this shockingly middling (I honestly expected it to be a whole lot worse) project. This is an attempt to turn an unflinchingly bleak and austere novel from the early twentieth century into a children's film for the year 2020.

The results are astoundingly complex in quality, and not in a particularly good way. The best way I can put is thus; the first 45 minutes of this movie are obnoxious and silly beyond repair, and the last 45 minutes are much more focused and emotionally resonant.

There's an honest-to-God night and day difference between the two halves. First, you're witnessing a ludicrous, barely-of-this-reality-looking canine emoting for dear life against CGI backdrop after CGI backdrop, complete with slapstick and anthropomorphisms galore.

Then, we end with a plaintive, melancholy meditation on life, death and the cruel reality of nature, featuring a much less cartoonish-acting -- and, thus much more palatable-looking -- doggo at the center.

It's infuriating how much better the second half of this movie is than the first. So goes yet another film to toss into the "Tale Of Two Movies" case file.