Mass Consumption

It would seem that both the movie WALL-E and its reviewers lack balls. That's the way I see it anyway.

As we can already see, almost all the reviews of Pixar's latest "heart-warming" feature say the same things - "charming," "endearing," "with an environmental message" - and overlooks the same things too, namely the hypocrisy of its so-called "message."

While it quite explicitly rebels against mass consumerism, showing future humans as fat and useless, and apathetic towards their environmentally-devastated home, the "environmental message" is simply null and void. Even stupid to a certain degree.

And the ending of the movie - it simply lacks balls. It doesn't have to be a downer, but there's huge potential there to do something different, to go against expectations. But at every turn, I was met with the same boring, predictable stuff.

But the movie is prophetic. With all the glowing reviews coming together into an indistinguishable mass, what's to differentiate between the fat and useless humans in the movie and the "mass-consuming" reviewers? We are indeed becoming a hive-minded blob. Even when a story like V For Vendetta, which stresses the importance of individuality, is adapted into a film, it also morphs into a mass appeal ending with the masses taking on Guy Fawkes masks.

Look at WALL-E this way:

That "charming" robot as merchandising becomes a metaphorical crusader of mass consumerism. EVE was, at first, a rebellious individual who wanted to destroy WALL-E, ie. destroy consumerism. But soon she falls in love with him, certifying that, yes, sooner or later, mass appeal gets to you, whether you like it or not.

And that's frightening.