Today’s quick review: Patema Inverted. Age is an ordinary student in a world of draconian conformity. He becomes a fugitive from the authorities when he discovers Patema, a girl from an underground society with inverted gravity who got lost and fell to the surface. Pursued by men who want to capture Patema for study, the duo must find a way to return Patema to her home underground before she is caught.
Patema Inverted is a Japanese animated adventure with an unusual premise. Elements of the film should feel familiar to fans of Japanese animation: a misfit male lead trapped in an almost personally repressive society, a female lead whose adventurous spirit lands her in trouble, and a story that causes the two worlds to meet. But these familiar elements are woven around a novel premise to produce a film that stands well on its own.
Patema Inverted plays its premise to the hilt. The entire movie is a mind-bending physics puzzle as Age looks for ways to keep Patema from falling into the sky. While the gravity flip is the primary appeal of the film, the twists and turns of the plot keep things from becoming too static. The action, such as it is, can be quite clever, and the film feels like it makes the most of its clever premise.
For all its charm, Patema Inverted never comes together in a way that would make it a classic. The film, produced by Purple Cow Studio, never captures the sense of magic that Studio Ghibli imbues its films with. The characters are good but not great. The plot has a couple of nice surprises but lacks a cohesive trajectory for the audience to anticipate. The setting is a metaphor for conformity and closed-mindedness that, while not obnoxious, borders on heavy-handed.
Still, Patema Inverted is a fun and unusual film that is worth checking out. Fans of Studio Ghibli will be slightly disappointed in the quality, but should watch anyway for a film that offers a decent take on similar concepts. Watch it if you are curious what a fuller take on what Upside Down promised. Skip it if you dislike the genre or you suffer from vertigo.
7.4 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 7.0 to 7.5 for solid execution on a good premise.