'Slumberland' strands Jason Momoa in a nightmare of a film

Muricas News  — 

A film about desires turns into the stuff of nightmares in Netflix’s completely misguided “Slumberland,” an try to construct a sprawling fantasy journey from the bones of the early-Twentieth-century newspaper sketch. Most notable as a automobile for Jason Momoa, this wannabe spectacle from “The Starvation Video games” director Francis Lawrence serves up plenty of particular results desperately seeking a narrative.

The plot begins with a well-known kid-movie setup: A younger lady named Nemo (Marlow Barkley, in a gender swap from the comedian) residing in a lighthouse away from the world along with her caring father (Kyle Chandler). When dad is misplaced at sea, she’s despatched to reside along with her buttoned-up uncle (Chris O’Dowd) within the massive metropolis, discovering an escape in her desires.

The realm of desires is described as “a world with no consequence,” however as constructed, that is available in a film with no clear inventive compass, proving extra mystifying than magical. Alternately zany and sappy, the previous impulse is embodied by Momoa’s Flip, who resides within the dream world and, together with his horns and hat, resembles an unholy cross of the Mad Hatter, the Ghost of Christmas Current and a refugee from the island of Dr. Moreau.

Nemo and Flip go on a collection of adventures in pursuit of a treasured artifact, with the promise that by journeying by means of the desires of others, she’ll someway be capable to see her father once more. Alongside the way in which, they run afoul of one thing referred to as the Bureau of Unconscious Actions, a surreal paperwork that sees Flip as an outlaw.

Netflix has already made an enormous wager on desires with “The Sandman,” however the basic conceit right here broadly brings to thoughts the traditional movie “Time Bandits,” though any comparability principally simply displays how onerous that mixture of caprice and irreverence is to grasp, and the way conspicuously “Slumberland” falls in need of it.

Maybe foremost, it’s tough to find out for whom “Slumberland” is meant, aside from Momoa followers and a youthful viewers numbed sufficient by videogames, maybe, to be dazzled by the creative manufacturing design and untroubled by the thinness of the story.

Streaming providers are clearly dazzled by the advertising worth of star energy, and Momoa – who appeared reverse one other younger lady the dreary “Candy Woman” final 12 months, in addition to the sooner collection “Frontier” – as all the time gives a muscular dose of it. These attributes really feel wasted, nonetheless, within the surreal confines of “Slumberland,” which, as amusement-park-type names go, doesn’t even qualify as a pleasant place to go to.

“Slumberland” premieres November 18 on Netflix.