Another teen flick spawned from the wry, dark, and romanticized literary world of John Green, where teen protagonists fall in love and get their hearts broken.
In Paper Towns, our hero is the safe and boringly focused and disciplined Quentin (Nat Wolff), who is nursing a longtime crush on the reckless, restless, and mysterious Margo Roth Spiegelman (Cara Delevingne).
When mannish-faced Margo suddenly sneaks into his bedroom for a night of "epic adventure," which consists of pranks only hilarious to 7-and-a-half-year-olds and as exhilarating as polishing one's shoe, Quentin feels alive for the first time (go figure).
When Margo suddenly disappears and leaves clues for a hunt that is exciting as ironing your clothes, and a boring guy like Quentin decides to take his first ever road trip to find her, it becomes a frightening recipe for a snooze-fest, and your limbs start to itch with restlessness.
Penned by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and directed by Jake Schreier, Paper Towns obviously wants to achieve that melancholy feel and teenage rush, the thrill and air of a beautiful mystery, but fails. Driven by colorless characters, including Q's buddies, the caricature of a comic, Ben (Austin Abrams) and the caricature of serious, Radar (Justice Smith), the movie feels contrived. Even the "cool" soundtrack cannot save it.
The film's set of one-dimensional characters and flat, bland, papery story makes Paper Towns a paper-thin movie.
When Margo suddenly disappears and leaves clues for a hunt that is exciting as ironing your clothes, and a boring guy like Quentin decides to take his first ever road trip to find her, it becomes a frightening recipe for a snooze-fest, and your limbs start to itch with restlessness.
Penned by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, and directed by Jake Schreier, Paper Towns obviously wants to achieve that melancholy feel and teenage rush, the thrill and air of a beautiful mystery, but fails. Driven by colorless characters, including Q's buddies, the caricature of a comic, Ben (Austin Abrams) and the caricature of serious, Radar (Justice Smith), the movie feels contrived. Even the "cool" soundtrack cannot save it.
The film's set of one-dimensional characters and flat, bland, papery story makes Paper Towns a paper-thin movie.
1.5 out of 5 stars
Opens July 22, 2015 in Philippine cinemas
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