Film Review: Paul (2011)

Paul is a science fiction comedy reuniting British comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in their latest adventure that combines British and American humour and takes the audience on a journey of a close encounter of a different kind!



Paul tells the story of two sci-fi fanatics touring Amercia’s UFO country, where they encounter Paul, an alien on the run from government agents trying to recapture him (voiced by Seth Rogen). Together the trio share a journey to reunite Paul with his mothership and encountering various obstacles and hilarious mishaps along the way, from kidnapping a half blind daughter (played by Kristen Wiig) to dressing up as a cowboy.
Greg Mottola, famously known as director of cult classic Superbad, directs another masterpiece as he combines both American and British humour that is able to be understood by audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. From combining the British play on words performed brilliantly by Pegg and Frost to slapstick moments from Rogen and Wiig to create a comedy that can truly be enjoyed by all.

Simon Pegg’s character of Graeme Willy shows a true change in character, which is very common in roles played by Simon Pegg. At the start of the film the character lacks confidence and belief in himself, but by the end of the film he establishes a dominant presence that allows him to not only be received positively by the audience but get the girl by the end of the story.

Frost -><- Pegg

 

Nick Frost plays Clive Gollings, Graeme’s best friend. This role is again particularly common to the style of characters that Frost has played in his partnership with Simon Pegg. Again Frost plays the sidekick role and used for comical relief within the film however, in contrast to other roles, his character unlike previous roles of being the "idiot" who gets the duo into trouble and says things to frustrate his colleagues, this character of Clive is skeptical of the adventure until the final act of the film in which he becomes a faithful side-kick, a Robin to Pegg’s Batman.



The CGI used to create Paul is not over the top as you would expect for a film of the 21st Century. Instead it focuses on realism, which therefore aids in the audience’s suspension of disbelief and is therefore able to accept the concept that Paul is a walking-talking alien interacting with human characters. The humour that Rogen provides is excellent, playing on common stereotypes not only of aliens that are perceived in science fiction culture, but how aliens are perceived in general. In the film Paul is imprisoned by the government for 60 years and reveals that he is responsible for many of the marvels of the 20th Century. This allows the character of Paul to become more funny as he sheds the common stereotype early in the movie and by the end of the film, the dialogue and attitude that is associated with Paul is almost completely human, which allows the audience to fully engage with the character.

This film pays homage to many science fiction films, from Star Wars to Star Trek, many actions, soundbites and dialogue are implicit or explicit references to the science fiction genre. From modernising the infamous Canteena song from Star Wars IV to casting Sigourney Weaver, famously remembered for her main role within the Alien franchise shows that the writing in this film aims to show appreciation more many of the science-fiction movies that have come before to satisfy not only the contemporary audience that fell in love with Frost and Pegg, due to their success in the films Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz, but also acknowledge these films to attract fans of the science fiction genre by creating characters that had a vast knowledge of science fiction and using these sci-fi references not only to enrich their character’s authenticity as science-fiction fans but engage with the audience, in particular fans of the sci-fi genre.

Overall Paul is an overall laugh-out-loud, feel-good and fun-filled film that will have you walking out of the cinema with a smile on your face and nothing but good things to say about it. The characters are entertaining, the story is simple to follow, which allows the story to contain a variety of verbal and visual humour and mishaps in order to keep the audience entertained. In short, Paul is an excellent film that is literally out of this world!