Nimona should be a lesson for Hollywood these days. A fun, entertaining well done adaptation of a popular graphic novel that captures the heart of its story. It’s also a story with deep meaning and diversity that almost didn’t get made.
The fact that it did is one of the reasons Netflix, for all it’s problems, will probably stay on top of the streaming wars. At least in this viewer’s good books.
Nimona (Chloe Grace Moretz) is about a shape-shifting anarchist trouble maker who makes herself sidekick to the most hated Knight in the realm. Ballister (Riz Ahmed) stands accused of killing the Queen who stood for him (and by stands accused I mean this whole thing happened on television) and he had his arm cut off by the love of his life, Goldenloin (Eugene Lee Yang).
So he’s having a bad time.
Ballister wants to clear his name and find the killer with as little trouble as possible. But Nimona wants to cause a stir especially when The Institute (which basically rules over the city) is directly implicated.
Which creates a nice little argument between the two of them that of course has greater meaning. Ballister doesn’t believe the institute itself is the problem, but some bad apples, while Nimona is like no the whole rotten thing made the bad apples!
And after a series of very public confrontations Nimona’s deeper history unravels along with the fate of the city itself.
Nimona’s strength of story works on several levels. I thought it was just a great fun movie and the cast, especially Moretz, kept things high energy and lively. But it was also moving where it needed to be and well-earned. And the older people will see the deeper meanings in the film.
So I am shocked (sarcasm) that Disney decided, after buying Fox, they weren’t going to finish Nimona despite it being at 75% done. I’m too much of a cynic so I’ll just say the script was probably too damned good for them and they didn’t know what to do with it.
To give them some credit they let Netflix buy it.
Whatever Disney.
I’m just glad Nimona got finished by someone and the obvious care and love put into the final product.
Recommend: Yes. It’s metal 🙂