The director Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) took so much inspiration for this storyline from his previous jobs, particularly with being the son of immigrants in NYC during the 70s. Having used that as a ground is all well and good, as is the notion of delivering a rom-com as the central narrative. However, between the layering of very different ideas, the lack of more memorable characters (in spite of good vocal performances), and a familiarity of it all, Elemental feels less special and more like a mixture of previous Pixar movies that executed their ideas more effectively. Thomas Newman's score in this film is terrific. Naturally, the visual effects are as impressive as ever, as well. Those aspects are enough to make the movie good enough, but combining all of these elements still left the final product a bit more to be desired.
Review of Extraction II
