After sitting down to finally watch "The Last Mimzy," I wish I could focus on the good story concept, the exceptional acting and interesting special effects. But in terms of the latest film to come from New Line Cinema, it's difficult because what sticks out the most in this almost-kid friendly film is the snail's pace that could've been avoided by simply adding some decent editing to the mix.

And that was a problem plaguing the film almost from start to finish. With so much dead space between different events and key points in the film, you had time to think of other things like why is Dwight from "The Office" a hippie school teacher? When did "Nip/Tuck's" Julia McNamara remarry? And what is it with the mumbling stuffed rabbit anyway?

It's kind of difficult to throw blame when something like this comes up, so I'll just go straight to the top. Sorry, Robert Shaye, but this is definitely no "Book of Love."

I guess I went in with bad feelings about Shaye anyway. He's been fighting with Peter Jackson over a chance to take a look at the books when it comes to profits from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." But on top of that, Shaye also is New Line's studio head which means he basically appointed himself director of this film. The last time something like that happened, George W. Bush's head of his vice presidential candidate committee, Dick Cheney, named himself the choice. And we see how well that worked out (Note to Peter Jackson: please don't go hunting with Robert Shaye).

A lot of the directing work seemed amateurish at best. For whatever reasons, we are forced to notice that technology is everywhere. Look! Kids playing with portable gaming systems. The school bus has a plasma screen. And those darn computers. It's like we didn't get it, and we had to be spoonfed what this movie is all about.

But if you get away from the dead space in the film (which probably accounted for about 10 minutes total of screentime), there are good reasons to watch this movie. The story is good, even if its intended audience of 10-year-olds probably won't get it. Being "special" is something every kid wishes for. And the toys are pretty darn cool.

Rainn Wilson, who plays a school teacher named Larry White, by far steals the show. His quirky teacher who wants to believe brings a lot of the words alive, and his interplay with his on-screen girlfriend played by Kathryn Hahn was enough to make you smile, especially with her character's desire for Larry to dream up some lotto numbers.

The film does suffer from a few plotholes, the biggest coming from how adults seem to see these toys differently from the kids, and the kids -- played by actors Chris O'Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn -- picking up on that way too quickly. In one particular scene, Joely Richardson's character of Jo Wilder picks up a square piece of glass, and dismisses it as a paperweight. She sees nothing more than a square rock, but instead of O'Neil's character wondering if she thought the glass was simply a paperweight, assumed that his mother had seen something different, which she had. How could he know that?

Things wrap up all too nicely, which really tackles an audience that is not the kind running out to see "Battlestar Galactica" or "Heroes," so if you plan to go, do it with the kids, but just be ready to explain to them what is going on.

"The Last Mimzy" stars Chris O'Neil, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, Joely Richardson, Timothy Hutton, Rainn Wilson, Kathryn Hahn and a miscast Michael Clarke Duncan. It was written by Bruce Joel Rubin, Toby Emmerich, James V. Hart and Carol Skilken based on the short story by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore as Lewis Padgett. It was directed by Robert Shaye.

Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha, writing out of Tampa, Fla. He can be reached at mhinman@airlockalpha.com.

Win a "The Last Mimzy" prize pack! CLICK HERE to get started!

Join the SyFy Genre Awards Nominating Committee! Get all the details simply by clicking here!