Slumberland review: Is Jason Momoa's Netflix fantasy worth a watch?

Time for a snooze.

By Ian Sandwell

18 Nov 2022

"Don't judge, at least it's original," Jason Momoa's Flip says during Slumberland, almost acting as a pre-emptive defence of the new Netflix fantasy movie because, on the surface at least, it does feel original compared to something like The School for Good and Evil.

It might be based on Winsor McCay's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, but it's more of an original story inspired by it rather than a direct adaptation. Here, Nemo (Marlow Barkley) has been gender-swapped and rather than one-off adventures, there's a feature-length quest to be had in Slumberland.

Nemo isn't alone on her adventures as she's joined by eccentric self-styled outlaw Flip (Momoa). He's her guide through the fantastical world of Slumberland as they journey through people's dreams, searching for the one thing that might reunite Nemo with her late father Peter (Kyle Chandler).

jason momoa, marlow barkley, slumberland

Netflix

The setup promises an entertaining family spin on Inception, but it ends up being only slightly less convoluted than the Christopher Nolan hit. Because the problem with Slumberland is that it ends up spending so much time explaining its unique world that it forgets to have fun in it.

We do get set pieces in various dreams that have some visual flourishes, like dancers made up of butterflies, but every setting is drowned in sub-par digital effects. The movie revisits the same dreams and while there's a story reason for that, it's disappointing: being set in an endless world of dreams should be more imaginative.

We're told – in one of several exposition dumps – that if Nemo dies in another person's dream, she dies for real, to inject some peril. Yet she never feels truly in danger in the obviously fake surroundings, chased by a Lost-esque shadow monster, so Slumberland never truly thrills.

It doesn't help that despite all the efforts to craft its own world logics, that the movie sometimes breaks its own rules. You could just not think about it too much and enjoy the ride, but the ride is so lacklustre that your mind will be drawn to the inconsistencies.

Netflix

Slumberland's flaws are no fault of the cast though. Jason Momoa gamely throws himself into Flip's swagger, as well as building a believable connection with Nemo as they go from reluctant allies to genuine friends, while newcomer Marlow Barkley holds her own against her A-list co-star.

For all the disappointment of the world and the set pieces, the movie does have a strong emotional core. It might almost be a cheat to cast Kyle Chandler as another earnest father (see Super 8, for instance), but his scenes with Barkley are affecting all the same and tie the themes of the movie together nicely.

Slumberland might be aimed more at younger audiences, but anybody watching who's lost a parent will shed a tear. With Chris O'Dowd's well-meaning yet dull uncle Phillip (a doorknob salesman which creates juvenile, but funny, jokes), the movie even has something to say about being a foster parent.

But as much as the emotional core might work, Slumberland is let down by the fact that as a fantasy, there's nothing fantastical about the majority of it. It's a diverting enough watch due to the efforts of the cast, assuming you stay awake during the action.

Slumberland is available to watch now on Netflix.