Well... My year 10 students (around 14~15) wanted to see it so I put it on. End of the year, happy times anyway.
It was stupid.
A tearjerker at first but after depleting the sympathy well by using predictable dog-death, heart-string tugging moves with people falling in love with dogs etc, the movie became dull and boring. The dog just randomly remembered it's past life and then lastly the ending where he was reunited with his old owner felt so forced that I couldn't stop cringing...
This guy named David Brake on rotten tomato explained it pretty well "This film fails to earn a single emotional reaction of its own merit. Instead it preys on sadness offering little in return but misery and saccharine sentimentality."
I guess I'm not a bit fan of pet movies in the first place. There's usually very little creativity involved. It's just human-dog (or cat) falling in love with each other, one gets lost, goes on an adventure, gets found. Tears are jerked and people feel happiness when they reunite. I mean, if it's just a comedy like 'a pet's life' where it's wacky and it's for kids, I usually just swallow it nicely because... well it's comedy. A nice relaxing friday afternoon laugh. But for 'a dog's purpose' it had some funny moments, but it wasn't really comedy. It was supposed to be in the 'life' genre, but the life stories were way too simplistic and boring. Maybe it was because the movie was just for kids?? I don't know, like it dealt with depression poorly, almost like it was written by someone who doesn't actually know what depression is, or how loneliness can get. Too many short stories like the police and the family oriented lady made it impossible to actually engage or fully invest in a character (mostly because the characters were so bland, but still). Like when the dog fell in love with another dog named roxy, the narration were the only indicator that we, as an audience were supposed to also see the merit in the dog. Why? No reason. Just some little event to link the owners together. I don't even understand why the dog wanted the owner to know he was Bailey. What did that knowledge bring to the dog? Or the audience? It does a little bit in showing that "oh my purpose was to get back to my old owner to make him happy again" I guess??? I don't know...
In any case, I probably won't ever see this again
In any case, I probably won't ever see this again
