Review: ‘Home’ entertains the kids, not the adults

Synopsis: When the Boov invade Earth to escape the Gorg, a misfit Boov, Oh, finds a way to accidentally expose their hiding spot. While on the run, Oh runs into Tip, a girl separated from her mom after the Boov invade and peacefully conquer Earth. Oh and Tip go on a journey to find Tip’s mom while trying to keep fugitive Oh from being captured by the Boov and erased.

I went into this film with no real expectations, just hoping it would at least be entertaining but was a bit disappointed with the movie. The movie was a tad too slow for my taste and the humor wasn’t that funny, although I don’t think I was the demo they were aiming for. (I will say I did take my 3-year-old son to the movie and afterward he gave the movie a lot of praise, and wanted to go see it again.) So if parents want to entertain their children for an hour and a half, then “Home” is the movie for them.

That being said, this movie didn’t really feel like a family movie to me, because most family films are able to find a common ground to entertain the whole family. This film was specifically aimed at entertaining just the children.

What worked: Although this film wasn’t the greatest, it still had its perks. I’m surprised to say this but I thought Rihanna did the best job playing Tip among these much more seasoned actors. I did find Jim Parson to be entertaining at some times but Rihanna was by far the best voice talent in this film. Like every DreamWorks project put out I thought the animation looked remarkable and although I didn’t view the movie in 3-D I saw at times how fun it would’ve been to see in 3-D. I will praise the film for being able to make my son laugh throughout the movie because this is the first movie he has actually laughed out loud.

What didn’t work: “Home” is basically just a poor man’s “Lilo & Stitch.” “Lilo & Stitch” literally did everything better, plot, music, writing. The only thing comparable in my eyes was the animation. I was curious to see how annoying Parson’s character, Oh, would be and an hour and a half of Oh got to be pretty annoying. It was the worst when Oh and Steve Martin’s character, Smek, were on the screen together battling for the honor of who is more obnoxious. Unfortunately the whole story felt dragged-out and tired, and it was very, very predictable. I was able to predict the entire plot after the first 15 minutes, if not less, and there wasn’t a single twist that anyone older than 10 wouldn’t see coming.

Although the film wasn’t what it was hyped to be, I will still give the film a generous 4.5 out of 10. It does manage to make the children laugh and is able to entertain them through the whole film. And let’s be honest, if you are going to watch this film you almost assuredly have children.

This story was originally published April 2, 2015 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Review: ‘Home’ entertains the kids, not the adults."