Review of Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010) by Zombieaxehero — 07 Sep 2014

As a fan of the original books, I was really looking forward to seeing this movie, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. I'm not going to say it accurately represents life in middle school (let's face it: nothing can really get that right), but I can say that the life of Greg Heffley is one life that I'm glad to watch unfold before my eyes.

The story follows the events of the first book in the series, showing how Greg Heffley deals with life now that he's in the sixth grade, having to deal with trying to become popular while dealing with his best friend Rowley Jefferson, his screwball family (particularly his jackass older brother Rodrick), his nemesis Patty Farrell, and Fregley who has to be the weirdest kid I've ever seen in fiction. Needless to say, some liberties were taken when turning the book into a movie, but I think those liberties worked out well. No major events are taken out, but they have been rearranged slightly. What I really like is what they did with the characters. Greg is pretty much exactly the same as he was in the book along with most of the other characters, but there have been a few changes which I liked. Rowley isn't quite as gullible as he is in the book and doesn't let Greg push him around so much, and making Patty Farrell Greg's nemesis when she was just a minor annoyance in the book is a very welcome idea. The only character I didn't like was one they made up for the movie, Angie Steadman. Not really from a personality standpoint, but more due to the fact that she doesn't really have a point in being there at all. Minor complaint, but I think they could have run the movie without her and no one would notice. The movie,however, keeps the focus where it should be: Greg's mishaps in middle school and his friendship with Rowley. Can't ask for much more than that.

The casting for this movie is ideal. Zachary Gordon is great as Greg and so is Robert Capron as Rowley. A lot of people complain that Greg is kind of unlikable as a main character (though that would be more the fault of the book than the movie), and yeah, I will agree that his hairbrain schemes and how he just pushes Rowley around can get very irritating, but that's how a lot of boys his age are. He's just a wimpy kid, but this wimpy kid and his movie shouldn't be passed up, especially if you enjoyed the original books like I did.