“Something just occurred to me,” says the oceanic research scientist hot in pursuit of the illegal whalers. “When we find them, what are we going to do?” Just like the formula script of “Free Willy 3: The Rescue,” she does not think ahead. John Mattson, the writer of “Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home,” again connects the dots to give us basically the same movie plus one.
A couple of small details have changed. Jessie has aged. To show that he is growing up, Jessie first is seen driving along, getting the attention of a car with girls in them, and listening to rock n’ roll. Once he is done with that, he goes back to being a 17-year-old who plays a part that is better for a different actor. The script tries to balance by giving him a job as a research assistant and by providing him with a younger sidekick.
The setup for this sequel to the “Free Willy” trilogy has the oceanic researcher, Drew, played expressionlessly by Annie Corley, seeing that the Orca population is down by 10% and that it is their job to find out what has happened. Besides Jessie and the ship’s captain (Matthew Walker) and mate (Roger R. Cross), Randolph is back who is, once again, the most animated of the characters.
Among the best and worst parts of the plot are the villains. The head of the whalers is a third generation whaler named John Wesley, played by Patrick Kilpatrick. John is the only complex character of the story. In easily the most refreshing part of the film, the film explores briefly the other side of an environmental issue. Hollywood long ago decided that when it comes to the environment, there is only one defensible position. The script, on the other hand, explains John’s life as a whaler with some pity to his confessedly illegal job. John tells his son Max, played by Vincent Barry, that his grandfather proudly collected the whale oil that was used to light the lamps around the country. (Max ends up getting close to Jesse and the whales and going against his father’s work although not really against his father as such.)
The problem with this formula is that it becomes hard to hate a bad guy who seems trapped in his profession and who is such a good father. Without an adequate villain, the show lacks much credible tension.
TV director Sam Pilsbury’s film feels like a direct-to-video production, which is how “Free Willy 4” ends up becoming. Steve Rhodes says, “As a two dollar rental that only the kids watch, the movie becomes a more palatable proposition. Within the confines of a theater, Pillsbury's lethargic pacing and the script's paucity of ideas become all too apparent.”
Rhodes goes on to say, “The dialog is full of the platitudes one might find in a substandard third grade reader.” Typical is John’s lecture to his son. “Whales aren’t people,” he argues. “They don’t feel. They are fish.”
The only reason to see the movie are the playing whale sequences, which are nicely shot by the rugged mountains of the Pacific Northwest coast. As the whales go around the deep blue waters, the sun is shining on the ocean’s surface. The most remarkable moments are the shots underwater, which show close-ups of the people and the whales making direct eye contact with one another. Willy is as naturally at home there as the people are amazed to be sailing in front of his mouth. Still, a half hour short film of just these scenes would have been better than a feature length film padded with the recycled material from the previous two movies.
I hate it for the fact that it keeps moving back and forth between the two ships, which gets old and annoying really fast. On top of that, where are Jessie's foster parents? Where is Elvis? Where's Randolph's daughter? Did they not want to return for this sequel? I wouldn't blame them, but why is there no mention of them anywhere in this film? Also, John is a cruel, heartless man who thinks that animals are put on Earth just for people to hunt, kill, and eat. No, people have household pets and farmers are still around to this very day you man that doesn’t deserve to be out at sea! Plus, by the end of the movie, Max forgives his father, which makes me go, “WHAT!?” If John was my father, I would have disowned him for animal cruelty. Somebody call PETA on this guy!!!
You want to know what the surprising thing is. People actually liked this one better than the second one. No kidding, it holds a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes. Then again, I do have to reiterate what I said last week, this is all opinion based. For me, I felt tortured watching this one.
If your kids want to see this film, try to confess to them that they don’t want to subject themselves to such a cruel, heartless flick. Maybe after a good while, they will have forgotten about this film, and you can suggest a much better movie from the library or NetFlix instead.
Well that’s a relief. In the end, I say that you should avoid this movie like the plague. You will get sick for a good while, and it will take a long time for the illness to go away. Believe it or not, they actually remade the series, which I will have to admit, was needed. Stay tuned next week when I close out “Free Willy month” with the final installment.
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