‘Ray Gunn’ Review: Brad Bird’s Longtime Passion Project Is a Retro-Futurist Detective Story with a Muddled Message

The "Iron Giant" and "Incredibles" filmmaker and legendary animator has been kicking around his jetpack-powered noir-meets-"Blade Runner" feature for decades. The result is immersive, but too sprawling.

The queasy feeling of seeing “SKYDANCE” in the opening credits of any film will likely hold for the time being — so too will the words “JOHN LASSETER” — but at least Brad Bird‘s long-gestating passion project “Ray Gunn” provides a smidge of hope that the new mega-studio will continue to foster, well, long-gestating passion projects from beloved filmmakers. Skydance Animation first signed Bird and his film back in 2021, allowing the “Iron Giant” and “Incredibles” filmmaker the chance to make a film he’s been thinking about for entire decades. (The film is being released by Netflix, which does continue to bet on unique animated endeavors.)

The result is a highly creative mish-mash of seemingly disparate genres and tones that mostly work well together — set in a retro-futurist city that looks like if “Blade Runner” was considerably less scuzzy, it’s a hard-boiled detective noir tale that also imagines a universe in which humans and aliens co-exist somewhat peacefully — despite ultimately feeling let down by muddled messaging. It’s bad timing for all involved that the film is finally arriving on the heels of the massive Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery merger, as “Ray Gunn” is also a virulent screed against the punishing power of entertainment conglomerates on the creative class. Oops.

Sound like a lot? It is, but the vibrant world that Bird has designed for his compelling characters and overstuffed story does plenty of heavy lifting here. The city of Metropia is immersive, bright, and tangible, the kind of cinematic setting you can imagine navigating, living in, having your own adventures in. It feels so real, in fact, that you won’t wonder too much about its literal place or time (per the film’s official logline, it is “a gigantic city in an alternate future as seen from 1939”). In the film’s press notes, Bird describes the film’s general aesthetic as “almost like taking Art Deco but putting it in a wind tunnel so all the curves were smooth,” and the whole joint looks like Miami got swallowed by the grandest old skyscrapers of mod New York City. There’s something new — and beautiful — everywhere you look, plus flying cars and jetpacks that appear to be obtained CitiBike-style.

Mostly told through the eyes of tough-talking private eye Raymond Gunn (voiced by Sam Rockwell; all of the film’s voice casting picks are on point), the film’s central mystery is a sprawling one, first kicking off with a late night break-in at the office of a lawyer on the immigration beat. The politics of the place are fuzzy, and will stay that way, because while the streets are crowded with aliens of all shapes, sizes, and species, being non-human is seemingly looked down upon. We do know that Ray himself is an outlier because his best friend and professional partner Eye-Ra (voiced by Tom Waits) is a cyclopsian alien. That’s not totally cool in Metropia.

What is cool in Metropia? The immensely popular multimedia artist Venus Nova (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), an omnipresent cultural force we first meet by way of her massive, hologramic ads that pepper the city and alluringly promise, “Welcome to the future.” That may be the name of her next album, but Venus’ insane popularity also speaks to the way Metropia is moving forward, constantly looking for the next shiny thing. As it applies more personally to Venus, the pressure to keep topping herself with each new project has taken a major toll. It doesn’t help that she’s yoked to Megamax, a massive corporation that owns and controls just about everything when it comes to Metropia’s culture and entertainment. (Hmm.)

Venus might be famous for her work, but she’s infamous for her behavior, mostly wild mood swings that only ramp up before she’s meant to release her next! big! thing! Her outrageous outburst have turned her into a major liability for image-obsessed Megamax (now run by her own ex-husband), as she’s the kind of pop star who likes to celebrate her album release by punching paparazzi in the face, wahoo. Too bad she’s also the conglomerate’s biggest star.

Eventually, Bird’s film — with a script co-written by Matthew Robbins — gets to the meat of the action when Venus’ extremely complicated life runs smack into Ray and his knack for sniffing out bad guys. That’s not to say that Ray’s own life is not a messy one, and the film mentions myriad subplots about how he turned private eye (a former cop, his moral code didn’t really jibe with his time on the force) or why he’s so sad (dead parents). Bird and Robbins build in plenty of misdirects (just wait until the first time we meet Venus) and tangents, many of which feel curiously underbaked. With so many years spent on this story, perhaps “Ray Gunn” should have gone the series route? That too would have likely appealed more to the film’s target audience, which is distinctly not kids.

As Ray goes down the rabbit hole, the shiny facade of Metropia and Megamax (which is, notably and obviously evil from the start) begin to crumble. It’s clear the corporate brass are manipulating Venus — that’s a given, and long before she bellies up for a full hologram rendering we already know is not being used as a “backup” — but the full nature and extent of their deception is held back until the film’s final moments (so too is the root of Venus’ wild behavior, even as the hints intensify). Eh, maybe don’t get into biz with your ex-husband. Maybe don’t get into biz with the media conglomerate that owns everything!

Such messaging sure feels weird in our post-Skydance world. While Bird’s film stays firmly on the side of its creative stars, it’s odd messaging to consume and consider in this day and age. Massive corporations who treat their greatest assets as grist for the mill are bad, you say? Organic invention is better? Over-engineered entertainment doesn’t have any heart? That’s old school messaging, the kind of stuff that was true when Bird first cooked up “Ray Gunn,” and that we can only hope still inspires creative output far into the future.

Grade: B-

Netflix will release “Ray Gunn” in select theaters on Friday, December 4. It will be available to stream on Friday, December 18.