Here is Robert Zemeckis's latest CG-plagued fumble

In the latest review from one of our Film sub-eds, he laments how far this legendary director has fallen.

Alex Paine
24th January 2025
Image source: IMDb
A film with a title as vague as ‘Here’ really needs to stand out and, despite Robert Zemeckis’s best efforts, it doesn’t.

Adapted from the 2024 graphic novel of the same name by Richard McGuire, Here positions the camera in the same spot to show us how a single spot of land evolves over time, from the time of the dinosaurs to the present day. The screen either focuses on just one time period, or shows separate panes so we can see multiple time periods simultaneously.

It’s a nice idea but one that works nowhere near as well in execution. Everything else around Tom Hanks and Robin Wright’s family story feels completely superfluous, like they’re only there to pad the film out to a feature-length runtime.

It’s great to see these two actors again after their partnership in Forrest Gump, but the way in which that film spans the life of Forrest and Jenny is way more interesting than it is here. Forrest Gump may be criticised for its ‘theme park’ approach to American history but at least we explore events like Vietnam, Elvis, and Watergate in detail. Here gives us very little to go on.

a hodgepodge of thinly-written half-scenes and plastic CG scenery

The performances from all are great. Tom Hanks is always a reliable warm screen presence, and it’s great to see Paul Bettany doing some fine work. However, the constant use of de-aging technology to present these scenes can often leave them feeling cold. Zemeckis has obsessed over digital technology and motion-capture over the last 20 years but none of his experiments have enhanced the emotion of the film - in fact, they often take away from it.

The fact that AI was used in Here to achieve this effect also leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I may not like the visual styles of films like The Polar Express and Welcome to Marwen, but I at least knew humans were getting paid while they were being made. 

Image source: IMDb

Here had an interesting trailer, featuring the great needle-drop of I’ve Seen All Good People by Yes. It also does have some great scenes, mainly all the stuff with Hanks, Wright and Bettany. Everything else around it is a hodgepodge of thinly-written half-scenes and plastic CG scenery that adapts the graphic novel to the screens in the most surface-level and boring of ways.

Here tries to distract you with its unique visual presentation and non-linear structure but since these distractions don’t work, it just leaves you wondering what happened to this once-amazing director who made Forrest Gump, the original Back To The Future trilogy and the fantastic Contact. I think I’ll just listen to I’ve Seen All Good People again and quickly forget about this.

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