Aqua Teen Hunger Force moves to big screen
The style that made the Team famous on TV struggles on film
Image courtesy of Adult Swim
The exercise machine is an ill-defined instrument of the apocalypse. It captures Carl and forces him to buff up, against his will, to some generic workout beats. The machine came from the future or the past and may or may not have been constructed by the Team's enemies, Emory and Oglethorpe.
Let's face it. We all love Aqua Teen Hunger Force, but we love it in the same way we love that stoner friend we see at parties and hang out with only occasionally. They're great in small doses. Say, 15- minute doses on a Sunday night but untested when it comes to more lengthy exchanges.
Then something happens. Your roommate is graduating at the end of the semester and neglected to tell you that he'll be moving out, leaving you in the lurch for finding someone to replace him. Luckily, your stoner friend, who never really had the initiative to start looking in the first place, is also trying to find a new roommate. Problem solved, right? Well, maybe not so much. Turns out that something that's great in 15-minute increments isn't necessarily such a good thing in large doses, as anyone who's lived with a stoner can tell you.
And in the grand metaphor that is this review, that's just where Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters comes in: watching a whole film about the ATHF is like moving in with a stoner, harmless on paper, but severely lacking in execution. It's a weird, absurdest bit of crazy that's absolutely hilarious in parts, but really can't maintain the momentum throughout.
In as much as it's about anything at all ATHF is about the team trying to deal with an apocalypse-inducing workout machine from the future or possibly the past. It also delves into the team's origins, their father and/or children, and of course roller coasters, not that it does much good trying to summarize the plot of a movie with such a bad case of ADD.
Honestly, you could probably just chop the whole thing up into fifteen minute increments, air them as episodes of the show, and no one would be much the wiser.
And that's really the film's downfall. Without any meaningful storytelling or comedic discipline (traits that come off as charming in 15-minute increments) the whole experience is just a series of disjoint set pieces which range from the hilariously funny to the downright plodding.
For the Aqua Teen faithful, however, there's plenty to love. Since the movie is basically just one big episode of the show, if you absolutely love the show, you'll be hard-pressed not to love the movie.
Great Aqua Teen characters make an appearance throughout, from Emory and Oglethorpe, to the Mooninites, to the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future. Plus we finally get to see what the deal is with Dr. Weird...sort of.
In summary, Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is just a mess, but if you've got the patience or, shall we say, chemical inspiration to put up with its faults, it's got some of the funniest moments of any film out there. Just don't go in expecting any of it to make a bit of sense.
