Digging itself into a ditch: Too Much Nuance, Not Enough Shovel.

This week I watched Digger, big mistake. The characters, for one, were very unrelatable. Digger Rockwell was not nearly heroic enough (despite being the protagonist) and didn’t get a single chick, nor even save the world as promised. I was expecting this movie to be a beat-em-up power fantasy —bright-eyed kids lining up to grab Digger action toys, lunch-boxes, all the goodies. Instead, this flick made climate change seem like a very grim subject, which made me feel powerless and small. Through my movie-centric lens, I always thought of climate change as a “badguy” (ie. thanos, Dr Doom, etc.) that we would team up to fight (ie. avengers, UN) with unlikely allies (ie. Pete Buttigeig, Mitt Romney). It’s like director Alejandro González Iñárritu has never heard of an antihero. Excuse me? Deadpool? Ringing any bells? Yeah. That’s what I thought.

Digger Rockwell was meant to be a complex oil baron with a heart of gold. This is a long-term fantasy of mine. I got literal chills when he first grabbed the shovel, I felt the power of a well-meaning billionaire, a rag-tag do-gooder. All for nothing! No shovel-action, no dirty-work, and no popcorn-tossing from me!

Rating: 1/10 Trees Hugged. 👎