27. Abominable
Are you surprised? Yeah, so was I. This film shocked me.
You look at the poster and you imagine one of those bargain bin films you’ve never heard of with nothing to say and nothing to offer you. Then you get slapped across the face with something you didn’t even know you wanted. Judging a book by its cover is one of the last things anyone should do, especially when it comes to film because this was a really good adventure flick.
It’s nothing truly groundbreaking or anything like that. The film just takes a bunch of familiar elements and utilizes them extremely well. Some of those elements have interesting twists grafted onto them to make sure the film stands out too. That’s honestly sometimes all I could ever ask for.
Road trip films tend to be hit or miss and often feel the need to add nonsense that doesn’t move the plot along or stands as just a pointless obstacle to help the narrative feel like the characters are getting to know each other through a series of trials and tribulations. That bland scene in Moana where they fight the coconut people comes to mind. This film doesn’t really have that. It manages to weave an organic adventure story out of the characters it has solely by taking them to different locations while they’re under attack by a singular entity of antagonists, all of whom are actually interesting.
The film first intrigues you via its location. I was stunned to see all the Chinese writing on all the buildings when it first started. Having just come back from Japan at the time of writing this, I was wondering if that actually was the location since differentiating between Japanese and Chinese characters is still a bit out of my wheelhouse. It did become clear that they were in China as the movie went on though.
You have your seemingly typical group of protagonists at the start. There’s Yi (Chloe Bennet), a young teenage girl who lives with her mom and grandmother. She takes a bunch of odd jobs to save up money in the hopes of one day going on a trip around China marked by a bunch of locations in photos her departed father took. Of course, her remaining family is worried about her. She keeps avoiding them all the time and making sure she stays busy, something she eventually reflects on later as a means of avoiding processing her feelings regarding her father’s death.
Then there’s the two boys, Jin (Tenzing Norgay Trainor) and Peng (Albert Tsai). Jin is one of Yi’s childhood friends and he’s that super pretty boy who's got a ton of girlfriends and is obsessed with his looks and his custom shoes. The film opts to not make him an asshole about it though, instead going for a more out of his element and concerned parental role for him throughout the film. He remains skeptical to a healthy degree but accompanies them on their journey through nothing but a determination to make sure they’re both okay. It’s appreciated. He’s the kind of character I worry about being annoyed by and he never really was. The film pokes enough fun at him in order to ensure it doesn’t really feel like his demeanor is being brushed off. Then he grows out of it by the end. It’s great.
Peng is Jin’s cousin and he’s the wonderful little bouncy Charmy Bee of the group. He’s just a fun little boy who ends up bonding with Everest, the Yeti, along on their trip because, hey, turns out they’re both children.
There is a Yeti in this film by the way and the plot centers on it. The film just opens with him escaping a hi-tech facility in Shanghai and he’s discovered on the roof by Yi. Through a series of shenanigans she makes the decision to take him back to Mount Everest where he belongs and the boys end up coming along through happenstance.
Dr. Zara (Sarah Paulson), the one in charge of the facility that Everest broke out of, teams up with one Mr. Burnish (Suzy Eddie Izzard), a short, stout old man whose mission in life is to catch the yeti, dead or alive, to prove to the world that he’s not crazy. Dr. Zara pleads with him to make sure the animal isn’t harmed because she’s a zoologist and loves all manner of interesting creatures and Mr. Burnish hastily agrees. That sets them out on their journey with their super intimidating black spy gear and armored vehicles after these three human children and their child yeti, all across China.
Now… with all that laid out it sounds rather straightforward and simple, doesn’t it? Thankfully it is. But what I really love about this film is that it takes the simple, familiar troupes and just plays with them in a supremely fun way. The manner in which Jin is shown to come around to what the adventure he’s on should be accomplishing for them all has him breaking away from the group and temporarily staying with the villains for a bit, for instance. Another interesting tidbit is how the Yeti’s powers work. Yes, it has powers.
Because it’s one with nature, whenever it sings or hums, things in nature react in various ways. Sometimes fruit will balloon out to humongous size. A field of flowers will function as the sea to the point where you’re riding on a boat across the land as a literal WAVE of them is coming down on you. Fucking stellar scene that one was. Oh yeah, you can ride the clouds shaped as fish to your destination too. It’s really imaginative and cool. The stuff they do with this Yeti and his powers is really breathtaking.
However, on a thematic level, the way they couple that with Yi’s violin is kind of brilliant. I don’t want to spoil it but I will say that her violin is an incredibly important item to her and something happens to it later in the film that expertly weaves what it is and what the Yeti can do together to create something truly magnificent. I didn’t see it coming and that can be said of a lot of the developments in this film.
For instance, as the film went on, I started to take more notice of the things Mr. Burnish was saying and how he was reacting to nature. It wasn’t reading to me as the generic villain I thought he might have been when reading that description of him above. This was to the point where I was starting to wonder if he even was a villain and as the film went on, they pull off a twist concerning some of the people in that villain group that just amazed me.
Again, it’s nothing groundbreaking but this film managing to pull off surprises like that really shocked me. It also does it in a way where it feels organic because it literally SHOWED you something but because of what you were told you just don’t really think about it that much. I thought about it a little but let it go because of what was being said and because I was still underestimating the film. It got me though. Well done.
The thing about this film that truly does it a wonderful service, however, is just how heartfelt it is. The music is great, the visuals are gorgeous, and the characters and their development is well paced and genuine. There’s seldom ever a moment where the music isn’t swelling as it’s showing you some incredible scenery or just bathing you in the atmosphere of the adventure these children are going on.
Perhaps it’s BECAUSE I just got back from my Japan trip but it really did kind of make me feel good. I was imagining myself there, riding trains, exploring the woods, hiking, reaching the heights that these kids reached, all the while creating bonds with friends or family in my youth. It could have only been better if I actually were the same age as these kids because things feel SO much bigger and more important when you’re smaller. Imagine having an adventure like that as a child. Oh, it makes me jealous.
Sure, the dialogue and characters are good but they’re good in a way that I can see someone arguing as “just serviceable” and… they’d be correct. For as much praise as I’m heaping onto this film, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if somebody saw it and just shrugged their shoulders at it because of its use of these familiar elements. I get that.
Despite it not doing certain things all that especially great in some areas, the film’s dedication to just being beautiful, fun, and full of heart as much as it is was admirable. It doesn’t especially need super clever jokes or whatever to just be a fun adventure road trip film. It stands on its own merits.
It works. It really works and I remain shocked because I had never heard of this film before doing this list. I almost feel bad it's on the bottom half of the list. Not to worry though, eventually, the closer we head to #50 we'll reach the movies that are actually bad (in my opinion).
Also, I’m happy this was one of those films that just kills two people off. Fucking great stuff.
Don’t worry. They deserved it.
