Hello again, readers, and welcome to another edition of the Nightcrawler Experience!
For this, the third entry in this blog's annual partnership with St. John's United Methodist Church for their Summer at the Movies series, we had to do a VERY last- minute change; Initially, we were planning to look at the live- action musical 'In the Heights'; However, some people upon watching the movie in advance began to develop concerns that it may not be appropriate for screening in a church setting (Having never seen it myself, I cannot comment, though its PG- 13 rating did raise a red flag for me in that regard), so we decided to select an alternative movie instead; The 2021 animated film 'The Mitchells Vs. The Machines'!
(Credit for this image goes to the user Omoniyi.ade0614 on the Sony Pictures Animation wiki at https://sonypicturesanimation.fandom.com/wiki/The_Mitchells_vs._the_Machines?file=The_Mitchells_vs._The_Machines_poster.jpg)
The movie centers around teenage Katie Mitchell and her
family; Father Rick, mother Linda, dinosaur- loving younger brother Aaron, and borderline- brainless dog Monchi. They are all eccentric and quirky in their own ways, but clearly love each other deep down. However, Katie and Rick are
becoming estranged from each other. Katie is an aspiring filmmaker who makes
goofy Youtube videos to try and basically hone her skills, while her father is more of an outdoorsman and
handyman, and neither of the two of them is particularly interested in the other’s pursuits. Linda and Aaron each try to keep things calm and happy as best they can, but without much results.
When Katie is accepted to film school in California, she
looks forward to being able to get out on her own and get better at doing what
she loves, but her father is more hesitant. The night before Katie is to leave
for film school, the two have an argument that causes some serious regrets on
both sides. Rick, fearing that this friction may cause him to lose his daughter forever, tries to atone for this the next day by telling Katie
last- minute that they have cancelled her plane
ticket to California and will instead be driving her there cross- country as a family to get
in some more bonding time with her. Katie hates this decision, because she’d
rather spend as much time as possible in California getting to know her new
classmates, but she is forced to go along with it. The trip quickly proves to
be a mixed bag with annoyances and hangups but also the occasional amusing moments.
Things take a, well, interesting and unexpected turn before too long. Tech CEO
Mark Bowman unveils his company’s newest creation, PAL- Max, which is basically a cross
between a smart phone and a robot butler. This prompts the company’s now-
obsolete former AI, ‘PAL,’ to go rogue, hijack control of all the company’s
machines and declare war on humanity (Don’t you just hate when that happens?),
sending its swarms of PAL- Max robots to capture all humans on Earth and
eventually shoot them all into space and create a new robot- populated world.
The Mitchells manage to escape this, and learn that there is a special kill- code that can
shut the robots down for good and thus save humanity. They opt to drive on a dangerous mission to do
this, and in the process learn a lot more about each other and themselves.
An issue I have with ‘The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ is with some of its animation style. Specifically, it frequently uses what the animators refer to as "Katie- Vision," with intentionally crude- looking 2-D hand- drawings and photos appearing over the screen and the 3-D animated characters and environments at times, I guess to kind of accentuate whatever Katie's thinking at the time (If you see the movie, you'll know what I'm talking about). I've seen other movies and shows do similar things at times, and to be honest, I’ve never really liked it very much. It's alright in small doses, but when used too heavily, it feels like an annoying distraction, and most of the time in this movie, that's exactly how it feels like.
Also, I thought the main villain 'PAL' wasn't as effective as she could have been. I feel like the writers could have made her a little more sympathetic (i.e. Emphasizing the pain she clearly felt when Bowman, whom she saw as her best friend, callously rejected her in favor of these new robots), and having her spend nearly all of the movie housed within a little smart phone lessened how menacing she could have potentially been. maybe they could have had her spend some of the movie transferring her AI into a giant supercomputer monitor that would make her pixelated face look gigantic, or possibly into some of the other, more mobile devices that the company makes.
Other than that, 'The Mitchells vs. The Machines' was a hilarious and often heart- warming film that gets progressively better as it goes on.
It has LOADS of humor, and in a variety of forms. There's some slapstick, some funny word- play, social and pop- cultural satire (Including some that's really subtle, such as a Best Buy- esque electronics store chain called "Good- Get"), and lots of others. There were VERY few scenes in the movie that didn't get me laughing at least once.
There's also a good amount of emotional poignance to the movie. It becomes clear early on that the Mitchells really do love each other in spite of their flaws and their arguments. They just at times have trouble with really connecting with each other (A common problem among families), and even that they greatly lessen as a result of their adventure over the course of the movie.
Speaking of which, one thing I like about this movie is that, while there is conflict between Katie and her father Rick, it’s NOT a “One side is 100% right, the other is 100% wrong” type of deal, as it likely would be in a more lazily- written movie; They both have valid points, both have flaws, both need to overcome their own stubbornness and learn to listen to each other more, and both gain a lot more respect for each other over the course of their adventure.
The movie has some solid action scenes, too, including multiple car- chase scenes with the Mitchells trying to evade the rampaging robots. There is also an incredibly clever scene about hallway into the movie when the Mitchells go into a shopping mall to activate the kill- code, only to be assaulted by a wide variety of household appliances with PAL- tech chips in them that have come alive. How this is pulled off is really funny and fitting, such as dive- bombing drone toys, vending machines blasting soda cans at deadly velocities, and even killer Furbys (They manage the near- impossible task of being even scarier than real- life Furbys)! Basically, picture what would happen if some of your own household appliances were to come alive and try to kill you, how they'd go about it, and that's pretty much exactly how they portray it in this great scene.
The film does a great job satirizing how addicted to electronics, social media and the Internet the human race has become in recent years.
While movies that warn about the dangers of allowing science and technology to evolve faster than humans could control them are nothing new (i.e. '2001: A Space Odyssey,' 'The Terminator,' 'Jurassic Park,' 'Avengers: Age of Ultron,' etc.), this movie injects some novelty into it by taking this satirical approach and highlighting how addicted to gizmos and screens most humans are and how lost they could feel if those devices went away, or worse, became sentient enough to turn against them. For instance, one of the first things that ‘PAL’ does in her war on the human race is briefly shut off all wi-fi worldwide, which immediately causes global rioting and insanity.
We also see it through the often- unhealthy effect it has on most of the Mitchells. While Rick is a man who could stand to get with the times a little more, he actually does have a valid point that Katie and the others in the family are all becoming too addicted to smart phones and screens. Before the robot apocalypse begins, we see Katie and Aaron keeping their eyes glued to their phones at least 80% of the time, shielding them from at times actually SEEING the world around them with their own eyes, and Linda's constant scrolling of social media causing her to unfavorably compare her own family to their annoyingly perfect- in- every- way neighbors, the Poseys.
In other words, 'The Mitchells vs. The Machines' showcases nearly all the different ways that relying too much on technology, especially phones and computers, can be bad for people, and this is without even having the evil robots kidnapping people enter the equation yet!
Now, on to the character run- down. Katie is an interesting main protagonist, quirky and hyper yet struggling with inner feelings of insecurity and desperate to get better at what she loves and start living her own life. She's not perfect, she panics and loses her temper at times, yet her resourcefulness and tech- knowledge greatly help her and her family to save the day.
The father Rick is a character who, in the hands of lazier writers, could have been disastrous and predictable. Often in modern media, especially aimed at kids, "Dad" characters are portrayed as either dumb, useless oafs to be laughed at or unsympathetic stifling jerks to be hated. Rick could have easily become either of those stereotypes, yet the writers avoided that with him. While Rick doesn't always make the right choices on things, and clashes with Katie at times concerning her plans to go to film school, we see that he has plenty of uses, as well, and he just was afraid of Katie failing and feeling the sort of loss in that respect that he has felt over things. Rick’s survivalist skills often really come in handy against the machines, especially during the previously- mentioned scene in the mall. We also eventually learn that he sacrificed a LOT for the sake of his family, putting his personal life dreams aside to help his children have a better life. Around two- thirds of the way into the movie, we see a family home- movie involving him which had me at the brink of tears as it explained so much and did it so well. It honestly caused me to gain even more respect for my own father; We don’t see eye- to- eye on everything, but he too is a good, decent, Godly man who has given up a lot for his family, and I’m glad to still have a pretty solid relationship with him.
Linda is largely just a typical "Mom" character, supportive and helpful, a bit of a worrier, and not afraid to speak the truth in love. A scene in the climax in which we see her reaction to her family being in mortal danger had me laughing and cheering so hard!
The younger brother Aaron is okay. He can't get enough of dinosaurs, is nervous around girls, and a wonderful trait about him is we quickly see how much he loves his sister and that he sees her as his best friend, and thus he is very torn about the thought of her going away to film school. He supports her in it, but is clearly sad at the thought of not having her around anymore. That felt authentic.
The dog Monchi provides for
some good laughs even as you wonder if it has a single functional brain cell in its head. A pair of malfunctioning robots who end up becoming allies to
the Mitchells provide some good comic relief, as well.
The animation mostly looks pretty good when it isn't overly relying on that "Katie- Vision" I mentioned earlier. Everything's pretty detailed and there's clear effort to it.
In general, 'The Mitchells vs. The Machines' is another great film for the family to watch together, laugh at together, and talk about after, both concerning their reliance on tech and screens and concerning each other.
Now, to run down some Scriptural lessons that can be taken from 'The Mitchells vs. The Machines.' The first, from the devotional I made that was passed out prior to the screening, is relating to God using flawed people to do His will. We see the Mitchells, strange and flawed though they all are, managing to stop 'PAL''s evil plan and save the world. This ties into how God often uses flawed, imperfect people in the Bible such as Abraham, David, and Peter to do His will and build His Kingdom on Earth, and how He can similarly use us in spite of all our imperfections to do great things if we trust in Him.
Another faith- based message found in the movie relates to the movie's critique of humanity's current addictions to technology and social media. This can apply to our walk with God in a couple ways. The first is through considering the first of the Ten Commandments, seen in Exodus 20:3: "You shall have no other gods before Me." The fact is, for many in our modern world, our phones and laptops have become like idols, false gods, to us. They are the things that many people center their entire existences around. It's particularly shown in the movie through the scene I mentioned, in which 'PAL' at one point temporarily shuts off the world's wi-fi, and there's widespread madness and anarchy worldwide as a result. If such a thing were to happen in real life, I honestly don't think the results would be much different. It's what happens when a society worships something else rather than God. If we looked at and followed our Bibles half as often as we looked at our phones, this world could become a much better, holier place.
The next point is through considering that we are not to be too enslaved to the world and its ways. Humanity's present addictions to technology and social media are, I'd say, the perfect picture of what enslavement to the world looks like. Much of it is centered around people showing off their bodies, their outer beauty, and their possessions in order to gain the approval and admiration of other people, without any regard for the Lord. All of those things (Outer appearance, possessions, worldly approval) are temporary and fleeting, while what the Lord offers lasts for eternity. The Bible is filled with warnings for believers to not get so swept up in worldly things that they neglect their walk with God. 1 John 2:15-17 says "
I will soon be going on a vacation to my family's vacation home in Canada (My first time being there in three years), and one of the biggest lures up there is the wonderful scenic beauty and the chance to truly experience God's creation. There is some tech- stuff there, but I'll be spending most of the time hiking, kayaking, rock- climbing, enjoying the company of loved ones, and communing with the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, there we have 'The Mitchells vs. The Machines,' a very nice family movie that teaches even nicer messages on how even the most flawed of us can do great things, how we shouldn't let our technology or our social media accounts become our gods, and how we should rise above the fleeting ways of this world and seek the happiness and fulfillment that can only come from knowing Jesus Christ. I'd say all of those are definitely worth a "Like"!
That's it for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Come back in a week when I look at the next movie in this series. Until then, stay safe and healthy, and may God bless you all!
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