Nate At The Movies

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

At this point in my cinephile evolution, not a lot of movies really sneak up on me. Usually I’ll see trailers, posters, or cast announcements well before the news is mainstream, but such was not the case for In the Blink of an Eye. You’d think that I would’ve heard about an Andrew Stanton-led science fiction movie at least a month before its release, but I didn’t know it existed until Sundance. I was excited, of course—I love WALL-E and Finding Nemo—but then the negative reviews started rolling in, and I got less excited.

The premise of In the Blink of an Eye was ambitious—three stories of three families separated by thousands of years, but sharing core human experiences. From the jump, the story reeked of Robert Zemeckis’ Here from 2024, with a few key differences. Here featured one steady family line and a single plot of land over that extended time, while In the Blink of an Eye broadened its horizons, even reaching to deep space. That storyline in particular was the most engaging because of its novelty—even with its well-timed similarities to Project Hail Mary, which I’m reading right now—but on the whole, the characters, settings, and events of In the Blink of an Eye lacked the emotionality and gravitas of Here.

I had a hard time caring about any of the characters, and just like with Here, I found myself caring the least about the most ancient story—in this case, the Neanderthals. I understand there were plenty of connections between them and the other stories, like the acorn, but their story on its own was pretty boring. I also couldn’t really get behind Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs’ romance until they had a kid. In a story spanning thousands of years and multiple galaxies, why would I want to spend time with a couple crying on FaceTime? Kate McKinnon and ROSCO’s interstellar journey somehow featured the most touching relationship, and that’s concerning to me, considering one of the two in the relationship was AI. I also enjoyed once McKinnon’s kids got involved; they were a delight.

Most of the story of In the Blink of an Eye was egregiously messy and disjointed, but I will admit that the end worked for me, if only because the characters got all sentimental talking about life and time and purpose. The final scenes will have me remembering this movie more fondly than I should, because everything that preceded that couldn’t keep me from checking my phone like, a lot. I’d like to believe that Andrew Stanton was either very preoccupied with Toy Story 5 as he was making this, or that the Disney higher-ups didn’t give him the resources or support that he needed to make this truly good, because there was some potential here. I think In the Blink of an Eye could’ve really worked as a short film—and if the performances were better. I like these people, but none of them were good for dramatic roles. Hopefully this flopping is a sign of great things to come for Toy Story 5. We shall see!