REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR
<>Documentary
Directed by: Chris Paine
Written by: P.G. Morgan and Chris Paine
Narrated by: Tim Robbins
Appearances by: Danny Devito, Gavin Newsom, Jon Favreau
A sequel to director Chris Paine’s documentary WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?, an indictment of the oil industry with particular venom reserved for GM, who systematically debuted and destroyed their EV1, the company’s premiere electric car. REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR starts up almost right where the previous film left off, filming over the course of three years, endings in 2010. Chris Paine and his team are given unprecedented access to GM headquarters and Bob Lutz, then GM Vice Chairman, as well as Carlos Ghosn, the head of Nissan, who’s described as a ruthless samurai. They also witness the birth of Tesla Motors through its creator Elon Musk, whose great idea soon proves to be a bit more than he bargained for. Perhaps the most engaging character in the film is Greg “Gadget” Abbott, an optimistic neo-hippie of sorts who converts gas powered cars to electric by hand, believing that car companies won’t move fast enough to make a change.
This film, while capturing a paradigm shift in the automotive industry, never has the fire behind it that the first one did, and seems to focus more on the characters, which makes it feel unfocused because I wanted to spend more time learning about the people involved rather than the emerging technology and what these shifts in thinking could do for society.
Since all of the focus is on the players, the audience loses sight of the game. In one way or another, part of the reason for Paine’s access to these automakers is because it’s giving them a chance for free advertising for the Chevy Volt, the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Roadster. Paine does acknowledge this during the film but never shifts his narrative focus enough to make me feel like it bothered him.
REVENGE OF THE ELECTRIC CAR still has a nugget’s worth of interesting, but there’s a lot of charactery nougat to get around, and while it might be delicious, it’s never really satisfying.
It’s Halloween, forgive me the candy bar metaphor.
