Chupa (2023)

Chupa (2023). Chupa: Directed by Jonás Cuarón. With Christian Slater, Evan Whitten, Ashley Ciarra, Nickolas Verdugo. While visiting family in Mexico, teenage Alex gains an unlikely companion when he discovers a young chupacabra hiding in his grandpa's shed. To save the mythical creature, Alex and his cousins must embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

“This has like a mix of E. T. and Water Horse but mostly on the premise not much on the heart. It was a bit too short so everything went by quickly so you didnu0026#39;t get to really bond with the whole child meets monster and become friends things. I was like u0026quot;That was it?u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Chupa is cute even with the feral cat hyena like design. They met roughly in the middle of the film so really thereu0026#39;s not enough time to do much else. I think there was a bit too much of the bad guy sequences, which didnu0026#39;t really need to be that long since they didnu0026#39;t add to anything. Theyu0026#39;re just typical greedy villains so each screen time they got there wasnu0026#39;t anything new to add other than u0026quot;We need to find Chupacabrau0026quot;. Hollow villains basically.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe movieu0026#39;s message is meant to be conveying: (As said by Cuarón, the u0026quot;core message ofu0026quot; Chupa is u0026quot;the importance of family, particularly in a character who was looking for his roots.u0026quot;). They did insert the characters being together but to me it felt lacking since they didnu0026#39;t dive deeper on what this child supposedly is looking to connect to his roots so heu0026#39;s not really opening up. Then when the main family moment happened it was fast then the next scene it was back to the bad guy sequence up to climax. So even with the usual child and monster friend goodbye scene it didnu0026#39;t really feel sorrowful because you didnu0026#39;t really see them bond together. They just poof close buds.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI wouldu0026#39;ve rated this 5.5 but opted for 5. Chupa being cute isnu0026#39;t enough for me. They had a good message but they let that plot go. Where was the actual connection to his roots? The kids might like it because again, cute cuddly monster. But yeah the show feels dated with the acting and the awkward sequences.”