Paul

Have you ever invited someone out to a social event, you know, someone really cool? Maybe you hadn't seen that person in while and you were really looking forward to just kicking back and sharing some laughs. Then when they show up they've brought four or five of their really annoying friends with them. And what you want to say "you can come in but these losers have to take a hike." Of course you don't do that for two very important reasons: (1) The unspoken rules of polite society forbid it and (2) Unlike me, there's an excellent chance you're not a major league A-hole.

I separate myself from the rest of you because I feel like I should be able to say "you losers go take a hike". And nowhere did I feel that urge stronger than sitting through a screening of Paul. I loved the title character but was either bored or annoyed by the cast of characters who surround him.

Paul is the latest offering from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, who previously gave us Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and Run Fatboy Run (2007). In Shaun and Hot Fuzz, they succeeded in providing a fresh and cutting send up of some much loved movie genres. Here they try to do the same thing with the Speilberg/Lucas fanboy cannon. Pegg and Frost play Grahame and Clive, two British sci-fi fans who travel to the US to attend Comic-Con and take a tour of the famous UFO sites of the American Southwest. So how fitting that while out on the highway at night, they see a car go off the road in front of them and upon further investigation, discover Paul, a foul-mouthed slacker alien. The guys take Paul in their RV and their road adventure has officially begun.

Right away, I like Paul and find him very funny. When he's on the screen, I find myself enjoying this movie quite a bit. The problem is, when he's not on the screen, the movie begins to suffer almost immediately. The reason for this begins with the two human leads in the film.

The great thing about doing a genre spoof is you are able to use shorthand with the characters. Two sci-fi fans at Comic-Con? Got it. Say no more. We know who these guys are. Socially awkward, uncomfortable with women, terrible fashion sense. But because we are so familiar with those archetypes, unless you give us something fresh and interesting about them, we will get bored very quickly with them and sadly that is what happened here. Outside of generic sci-fi geeks, I can't tell you anything noteworthy about these characters.

Even more problematic for me was Ruth Buggs, the love interest for Graeme played by SNL's Kristen Wiig. Wiig is very convincing in the role of a sheltered fundamentalist Christian whose abhorrence for all things scientific should be a nice contrast for Paul. Now there is lots of room for satire and sharp commentary in the debate between science and religion. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't engage in any of that. The filmmakers seem to want to suggest that Paul's existence nullifies everything Ruth once believed so now she is free to drink, swear, and get stoned. I don't think I can end the debate but I don't see why we can't live in a world where Darwin's principles and intelligent design can co-exist. Why can't we have aliens and God (in whatever form you believe He takes: God, Yaweh, Oprah) peacefully co-existing? By portraying Christians as all slack jawed idiot Yokels, this movie really took a misstep for me.

Perhaps the biggest misstep involved the character development or lack thereof. SPOILER ALERT – There is a scene at the end where Paul tells the guys. "So I guess we learned a bunch of valuable stuff about being true to ourselves and all that crap." This is supposed to be a clever way of pointing out that they haven't really learned anything or changed for having gone through this journey. We are almost supposed to feel like that kind of character growth is a lame device of movies of yesteryear. But I wanted to scream at the screen 'If you have actually learned something about yourself for going through the journey, there might have been a satisfying ending. The majority of the plot involves them being chased by the authorities. That could provide some genuine character development but does not here.

I should point out that there are some genuine laughs in this film. Seth Rogen is great providing the bite behind Paul's personality. And the guys do a nice job of referencing all the big blockbuster movies of the 70's 80's and 90's including a Titanic reference that was very clever. But in the end there was too many lost opportunities for this movie to work as well as it should have.

I loved seeing Paul on the screen. I just wanted to tell the other characters to go take a hike. They're ruining my quality hang with my good friend Paul. I can say that because, don't forget, I'm a major league A-hole.

Or at least, that's what I'm constantly told.