Paul: A Review

After floundering around in Hollywood for the past few years, Simon Pegg (Graeme Willy) has finally re-united with Nick Frost (Clive Gollings) for the first time since Hot Fuzz [2006] in Paul, a film about two English sci-fi nerds who happen upon Paul, an alien, while driving through the Nevada desert. Despite the pair's faultless track-record together (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Paul, sadly, is something of a misfire. It's not terrible, in fact it's not even bad, but faced with living up to their earlier films, it falls short. (Comparisons with Shaun and Hot Fuzz are unavoidable, and besides, the films have a common target audience, so I won't even try).

The missing ingredient may well be Edgar Wright, director and co-writer of Pegg and Frost's previous three collaborations. Shaun and Hot Fuzz have strong narrative cores with countless references added on; the opposite feels true for Paul. As is Pegg and Frost's style, Paul is extremely esoteric, with more allusions than you could shake an anal probe at, but they proliferate to such a degree that trademark witty dialogue and robust plotting suffer detrimentally. It is often incredibly juvenile; there is a far-too-often repeated triple-boob joke, and a Darwinised devout Christian who takes her new-found spiritual freedom to swear constantly in an immature fashion. As with the triple-boob thing it tires quickly.

Continuing from the Darwin theme, Paul is surprisingly atheistic in nature. Since it is fair to assume that Paul is another attempt by Pegg to crack the American market, it is interesting that he should star in a film with such obvious athiestic undertones considering how resistant to all things Darwin America continues to be. Topics such as intelligent design and the old "if there are loads of aliens, where are they all?" (which results in one of the better moments in the film) are tackled in unexpectedly Dawkinsian fashion.

Paul also suffers from a predictable plot. Foreshadowing is painstakingly obvious at times: Paul resurrects a dead bird, causing Clive to ask - and I'm not ruining anything here - "Have you ever done that to a human?"; there are many other such instances that are just so clearly signposting the converging-elements-style finale. Perhaps this could be seen as an homage to the genre, but I say bollocks, there's no excuse for a poorly constructed narrative. Another particularly annoying element is the moronic FBI duo, who are walking clichés.  Pegg and Frost are good, however, and make the most of a limited script (which they admittedly wrote). Seth Rogan is also well-cast as Paul.

In the face of all this criticism I should make it clear that Paul does have redeeming elements. The references are abundant and will surely require several viewings for even the most ardent sci-fi fan to spot. There are many strong visual gags, and that many of the jokes are obvious doesn't necessarily stop them being funny.

Paul breaks no new ground. It comes very close to being a parody of, rather than an homage to, the genre that it riffs on with affection, but is still an entertaining film. However, while Shaun of the Dead has a wide enough appeal to encourage the casual viewer to take a dip into the horror genre, Paul is unlikely to persuade viewers of the merits of B-movie sci-fi, appealing instead to those already with a strong interest in the genre.

5/10