By Malice Intended

Doing a satire of genre conventions requires a nimble sense of comic timing and a certain love for the material, offset by a keen awareness of what may appear silly to detractors.  As evidenced by shows like The Family Guy, today’s writers and comedians mistakenly think that pop culture references are a means unto themselves. Thankfully, there are writers and directors working today that are both talented and incredibly informed about the properties they claim to love.  That combination can be fertile ground for some truly inspiring and insightful humor.

Actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are no strangers to quality satire.  Having starred in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, they understand what it takes to send up film genres beloved by fanboys the world over.  Now, Pegg and Frost have entrusted director Greg Mottola to bring their latest screenplay to life.  Paul is about two British comic book nerds who embark on a sight-seeing tour of the 50 states.  While visiting area 51, they befriend an alien named Paul, whose personal habits and sense of humor are similar to their own.  There is the basic premise of humans befriending benevolent aliens, popularized by Steven Spielberg’s E.T..  On the other hand there is practically every cliché associated with dodging government officials who wish to capture and “study” the extra terrestrial in question.

The trailer is funny and most of the gags work.  Paul is voiced by Seth Rogan, which essentially turns the character into a lovable slacker from another planet.  This could be good or bad depending on how one feels about Rogan himself.  Paul is brought to life with the use of CGI.  While the special effects on display are hardly cutting edge, they are enough to achieve the desired effect.  Listen closely and you’ll hear the voice of none other than cinema’s most relentless sci-fi heroin, Sigourney Weaver.  Paul seems to have quite a bit going for it, and yet something clearly seems off.  Dare I say that the humor on display feels a bit too “Americanized.”  The British sensibilities at work in Edgar Wright’s films offered a wonderfully skewed perspective on American genre tropes.    Greg Mottola’s sense of humor feels a bit too terrestrial and forced.

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Greg Mottola have built up a considerable amount of good faith with their previous efforts.  There is no reason to think that we aren’t in good hands with Paul.  For whatever reason, the trailers that have been released thus far don’t come near to generating the level of interest that one usually expects from the people involved.

Compared to Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Superbad, Paul looks and feels a bit more generic than it should.  Maybe everything will gel much better in the finished product, or maybe the trailers just aren’t doing a very good job of conveying the true spirit of the film.  Still, Paul deserves the benefit of the doubt, based on the track record of those involved.  It’s hard to believe that any of them would put their names on something their hearts weren’t in.

[pro-player width=’425′ height=’344′ type=’video’]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_Lr_APUcoE[/pro-player]

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