Dave, an artist who has yet to complete anything significant in his career, builds a fort in his living room out of pure frustration, only to wind up trapped by the fantastical pitfalls, booby traps, and critters of his own creation.
An inspired half-hour's worth of visual invention is spread out over a forced 80 minutes in Dave Made a Maze, a tribute to '80s horror-fantasy flicks that never quite decides what tone it wants to take.
Watterson appears to have put most of his energy into crafty art direction and practical effects, sorely neglecting story and character development...might elicit a few giggles, but its padded 80 minute running time becomes an endurance test.
While the dramatic underpinnings could have used more work, the labyrinth that's the focus of "Dave Made a Maze" is truly an amazingly inventive sight to behold.
Watterson does a fine job juggling tone and provides enough visual oddity to make this strangely sincere cardboard adventure work for much of its run time.
An episodic endeavor enlivened only so much by decent comedy talent dealing with absurdist situations in a hip deadpan that grows monotonous, with dialogue that too often sounds less-than-inspirationally improvised.
Although it's a scrappy indie, the movie has something in common with many platinum-plated CGI blockbusters: The visuals are as strong as the script is feeble.