Review of Into the Wild (2007) by Kev_I_N — 01 Mar 2014

Brief Review (I haven’t read the book, so this I based solely on the film).

+Brilliant Photography.

+Decent acting at points that make the film interesting at points.

+Great ending (wouldn’t spoiler for you).

-I found the story to be boring,Brief Review (I haven’t read the book, so this I based solely on the film).

+Brilliant Photography.

+Decent acting at points that make the film interesting at points.

+Great ending (wouldn’t spoiler for you).

-I found the story to be boring, predictable and pointless.

-Way to long I wanted to end.

-The dialogue was simplistic at best and dull at worst.

-The film fails to pull at your heart strings even at points when you are clearly meant to care.

The film can be summed up with one word, boring. It is not an awful film, but it never goes beyond 2nd gear. Ultimately I would I have preferred it if it was filmed like a documentary, which would have made greater impact. As a result I wanted it to end, so I wouldn’t recommend it.

Full Review.

The first thing you notice about the film is that is positive, is that the photography and setting as very interesting, and well filmed. Having said that once you begin to appreciate the plot, you realise this isn’t surprise, given the fact that the story is basically a journey across America, so great landmarks, like the Hoover Dam, are not too surprising after the first 30 minutes of the films.

Surprisingly at points there are decent pieces of acting, in particularly the ending, and sign of suffering of Christopher (main character). Likewise Chris’ parents do predict a decent level of emotion, without being seen as over-acting. However, for me, the best piece of acting was performed by Kristen Stewart. This is not because Kristen is by any means a decent actress, or depicts any sense of believable emotions, but it is simply because she is so bad playing the emotional under-age teenage girl, who wants sex. Such appealing acting by Kristen Stewart for me was one of the only bits of the film I can remember, simply because of how bad her performance is. (I watched the film literally an hour ago from writing this review). As a result for me the acting was substantial, but you know it is bad when the highlight of a film is Kristen Stewart.

For me the best bit of the film is the ending. I won’t spoil it, but basically it is unexpected, and one that is very well depicted, displaying the innocence of Christopher as a character, just wanting to live life free from the restraints of conventionality.

However for me this is by no means a good film. The main problem for me was the story. It depicts the story of Christopher, who wants to live life free of society, and ends up in his dream land of Alaska, with flash backs depicting the journey Christopher takes. For me it was such a boring story simply because the fact that you see him make it too Alaska which therefore makes the flashbacks for me pointless, because you know any situation Christopher ends up in, he will be fine. As a result for me the flashbacks, feel more like padding than anything else. In particularly his journey to Mexico, when he wants to go to Alaska seems like a waste of time. While they try and make it more interesting and possibly spiritual by having Christopher justify his life through quotations from books, it ultimately becomes pointless. As a result I wanted this 2 and a half hour film to end. The point here is that you could reduce the film time till about 1 hour and it wouldn’t make any difference.

The second thing you will notice about the characters within the film is that the dialogue is too simplistic. This can be seen by how the characters that Christopher encounters, seem to have really restrictive dialogue meaning no matter how good their performances are, their depictions feel limited at best. Such limited dialogue is made worse by how Christopher seems like someone you admire, but not too likeable, yet nearly every character he meets seem to view him as some kind of god like figure, with one character wanting to adopt him, even though he only knew him for a very limited period of time. The combination of forgettable and unconvincing dialogue, in combination with a dull story that was badly portrayed, for me killed any attempt the film tried to make to make you care about the characters etc.

Henceforth while I can see the appeal of the film, I certainly don’t think it is worth all the praise it gets. It is not that the film is awful, but the high levels of potential with the film’s story, in combination with the film’s constant mediocrity, make this film ultimately forgettable and a film with almost no charm. Whereas bad films can be interestingly bad, this film, for me, is just boring. As a result I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone.