Ray Gunn
It’s a world of Art Deco skyscrapers hundreds of storeys high with rocket boosted elevators, of penthouse gardens and pools and flying cars and rental jetpacks by the kerbside of the busy streets, not necessarily reliable, but it’s also a world of jealousy and ambition where money rules, private detective Raymond Gunn and his partner, the monocular alien with a photographic memory Eye-Ra Kadok, trying to make a clean living in a dirty city, Gunn a former police detective who lost his badge when he wouldn’t turn a blind eye to corruption.
A double deal break and enter to gather evidence of illegal offworld shipments tied to gangster Francis “Slugsy” Xavier leaving them stiffed for the fee and the office furniture repossessed, a back-alley encounter with the nameless red-headed dame saves Gunn’s bacon from the thugs sent to give him a message from Slugsy, but a new case comes calling, starlet Venus Nova set to release new album Welcome to the Future and Gunn tasked by her husband Arnold Dom to keep her out of trouble before the launch concert.
A concept which has flitted in and out of development since first conceived over forty years ago, Ghost Protocol director Brad Bird has given Ray Gunn his first case, voiced by Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’s Sam Rockwell alongside The Dead Don’t Die’s Tom Waits as Eye-Ra, What We Do in the Shadows’ Matt Berry as Slugsy, Ant-Man’s Bobby Cannavale as Arnold, Rogue One’s Alan Tudyk as Barry Vogler, Venus’ manager and ex husband, and Black Widow’s Scarlett Johansson as Venus herself, famous, fractious and keeping secrets beyond her double life.
Retro-futurism having run through much of his work, animated and live action, The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Tomorrowland, the setting of Ray Gunn is the culmination of this, the aerial traffic lanes of The Fifth Element populated by sleek cars piloted by sharp-suited humans and aliens, looking like extras from Monsters, Inc and not entirely accepted in all quarters of society, the world of The Jetsons and Supercar with their anti-gravity and colourful pew-pew astro-blasters wrapped around the traditional detective format.
Co-written by Bird and Dragonslayer’s Matthew Robbins, friends and collaborators since 1987’s *batteries not included, despite the gunplay and shenanigans Ray Gunn is family friendly if running longer than it needs to at two hours, moving with consistent momentum throughout but lacking the rises and and twists of a rollercoaster, ironically at its best when acknowledging the roots of the genre and going Nowhere, Nova’s prevalent pop career which dominates elsewhere at odds with the established style.
Entertaining and absorbing as it plays out but lacking the replay value of Bird’s best works, perhaps never reaching the joyous heights of The Incredibles because it lacks the dynamic of a superhero and a supervillain and undermined by coincidental parallels to the showstopping big number of The Interstellar Song Contest, nevertheless Gunn and Kadok are good company to keep and there should be no objections to re-engaging their services in the retro-future.
