AFI FEST Review: Gorgeous sci-fi trappings make Ray Gunn's bland story more bearable

Brad Bird is a legend among animation directors, having brought us some of the most beloved and iconic animated films of the past few decades, including The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille (a personal favorite of mine). Ray Gunn is a long-gestating passion project for the filmmaker. During yesterday's Q&A, hosted by Guillermo del Toro and featuring Bird and longtime collaborator/legendary composer Michael Giacchino, the latter noted that he first read the script for Ray Gunn back in 2024. Ends up Wildwood isn't the only decade-plus-gestating, mature-audience-skewing animated movie of the year.

There's clearly a lot of passion, and a lot of work, on screen when you watch Ray Gunn. It's a dazzling sci-fi spectacle of a movie, with gorgeous art direction, memorable set pieces, and a fantastic score from Giacchino. But sadly, these highlights aren't enough to make up for a story that is threadbare, predictable, and dull. There's not much meat on the bone here, and the whiz-bang wizardry of the visuals can only go so far in helping to distract you. 

For a while, I was distracted. When Ray Gunn starts, it feels like we're in for something special. (And, to be fair, it felt like much of the audience at the AFI FEST screening yesterday were very into it.) The world is bustling, shiny, exciting. There are flying cars and jetpacks you can rent off of parking meter-like stations, like Lime scooters of the future. Blasters have all kinds of powers, including a very cool limited-edition gun that can vaporize and store people, then spit them out elsewhere. Towering hologram advertisements beckon to you everywhere you go, and even pop up unceremoniously in your own home or office. And it seems like they're always advertising you just what you need - the algorithm never sleeps.

In many ways, the future of Ray Gunn feels like a utopia, and that's purposeful. Bird noted that he wanted the art direction to feel like WWII never happened, and art deco had remained the prevailing architectural style, and thus continued to develop and expand. Thus, this world has a really cool, endlessly beautiful retro-futuristic vibe to it. It's nostalgic and imaginative, buildings towering hundreds of stories high, bright lights, everything alive and busting. But even in this idealistic world of the future, so many of the sins of the past remain. Chief among them: xenophobia. While humans and aliens live alongside each other in this world, humans still fancy themselves superior and look down on their alien counterparts. Certain businesses (even hospitals) won't even allow aliens in.

This is an issue for Ray Gunn, the eponymous private eye, and his partner Eye-Ra, a three-legged, one eyed alien. Throughout the film, the pair has to split up, don disguises, communicate via ear pieces, because so often, it just isn't feasible (or maybe smart) for them to stick together. The sight of a human and an alien being so close is still unusual in this world. But Ray is a pretty unusual guy. Much to Eye-Ra's (occasional) chagrin, Ray is a P.I. with a heart of gold. If he could just let go of his morals once in a while, his office would be flush with cash, but Ray wants to do what's right. In a world where to many are still scheming, sneaking, lying, and stealing, Ray tries to stand up for what's right. But that can be tough, sometimes, when the shades of gray aren't always easy to tell apart.

At its heart, Ray Gunn is a noir that's been given a sci-fi face-lift. The case starts off simply enough: famous singer Venus Nova's husband comes to Ray, convinved his wife is being unfaithful. He wants proof, especially because Venus's next album (titled Welcome to the Future) is about to come out, and likely to bomb. He wants to make sure he can get a nice divorce settlement while there's still money to get. Ray takes the job, but it ends up being less straightforward than it originally seems. Soon enough, he's tasked with what is essentially babysitting duty: help keep an eye on Venus so she can stay out of trouble until the album releases.

What follows is, unfortunately, not very interesting. There are a couple twists in the movie that are so obvious I almost wondered if they're even supposed to be twists, or if they're actually discrete gifts to the audience so they can feel smart for figuring things out before we're told. This is a movie that zigs right when you expect it to zig. There are no surprises to be had at basically any point.

Maybe the main exception is in the film's set pieces. There are lots of exciting flying/falling sequences, laser gun shootouts, and fun chase scenes. The highlight is a fight that takes place on a skyscraper's elevator. One of the film's many nifty futuristic flourishes is these elevators, which have hundreds and hundreds of buttons, and harnesses you strap yourself into to avoid flying around while the elevator flies to the various floors. Ray faces off with a couple goons in one of these elevators in an action sequence that is so fun, creative, and unique. The choreography and staging are genius, and one of those glimmers in the movie that has you thinking, "Yeah, Brad Bird is good at this."

Which makes it all the more a shame that the movie as a whole doesn't totally come together. Ray Gunn is around two hours long, but the story is too simple, and the characters too simply drawn, to sustain that runtime. At about halfway through, I found myself itching for more. How did a project that took so long to come to the screen end up feeling so underbaked? Is this just the curse of Skydance Animation, continuing to get better with each movie but still not quite achieving greatness? To be sure, Ray Gunn is their finest movie yet (and may even score an Oscar nomination), but it still feels like the studio is yet to find their footing. 

I think they'll get there, and to be clear, I still had a very good time with Ray Gunn. Even if just for the wow factor of the world, it's worth a watch. But it has lots more to recommend, whether it be the game voice cast (Tom Waits as Eye-Ra is the highlight, grizzled and worn), Kimbra's catchy pop songs, Giacchino's wonderful score, or the cool character designs. I just with all these fantastic trappings had a better, richer, more interesting story to attach to. Or that the film had the good sense to run a bit shorter, so the lack didn't smack as smartly. 

Welcome to the Future -- sorry it's a bit boring here.