Eagle Vs Shark

Not a film I would normally watch, Eagle Vs Shark is a little hit-and-miss, but has an interesting story and characters. The plot revolves around a girl called Lily(Loren Horsley) living in New Zealand and how she falls in love with a character that people at first will not see the bright side of. In this way, she comes across as very innocent, and you feel emotions for her, which was a pleasant surprise from the monotony of one dimensional characters that bear no emotional weight throughout the film.
Originally I was given this film by a friend who shares an interest with me-that of the great television series Flight of the Conchords. Jermaine, who plays the character of the same name in the show, was in EVS also, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Commissioned by the board of New Zealand, and directed by Taiki Cohen, this film can not be really described as a heart-warming indie film, as Jarrod (Jermaine Clement) continues to be quite irritating, and the one chance he gets to get along with his oldest enemy ends in disaster, and even though the result was quite funny, it left the character feeling quite unlikable for me, and this made the character not stick in my mind that much. You can't laugh at someone you don't like.
Well, scrap that.
I laughed at the sheer ignorance of Jarrod and the fact that he thought he was so cool, and tried to emulate other people he had seen. The running joke of him lashing out because he was so depressed warranted a few good laughs from me.
Jermaine's performance in the film is average, but nothing really shone through for me. He could have emphasised more the hurt he was feeling because of the neglect his dad had shown him, and this would have gotten people to like him, but he didn't play on it enough for me. It would be nice to see him in another film, in a position where he could show off his comedic talents more. This side of him was totally different than the role he plays in FotC.
(Spoilers from now on!!)
His father ignores him as his other son, who we find out killed himself, was the golden child, and has countless trophies and certificates in his untouched shrine of a room, was deemed to be much better, and the father cannot cope with his hope dying unexpectedly.
The film reminds me of another film that may have a slot on this blog coming up soon-Napoleon Dynamite, as it has a plot that barely resembles any sign of cohesiveness, but with Napoleon Dynamite, there were quite a few humourous moments to balance it out, whereas this film relied on just showin the characters more.
The film does gain some speed, and does not remain at just a lethargic, slow pace throughout, when Jarrod leaves Lily for an old love, and she disbelieves in love and why she ever came to his home in the first place. She decides not to get pushed around anymore, and this makes for some interesting viewing as a side-by-side comparison from one extreme to the other. It serves to make her character a little bit more three-dimensional.
My main criticism of this film is that it can be very slow, and can get boring in some parts, but eventually does pick up the pace. There is quite a nice and happy ending, one which I didn't think would happen, but the ending was a little too brief for me, and it felt like the later act was just shovelled in without much thought.
Overall I would give this film a 5/10 as I don't think I could watch it again, and it was not very interesting.