Review of The BFG (2016) by Mrmoviebuff — 24 Jul 2016

Steven Spielberg, to me, is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time...a man who has become the benchmark in both the summer blockbusters and Oscar-worthy pictures. To me, there was very little he could do wrong, I loved his recent efforts such as 'Lincoln' (2012) and 'Bridge of Spies' (2015), and when I heard that he was going back to making summer movies, I couldn't wait.

Admittedly, when I heard that a long established, Oscar-winning filmmaker like Spielberg was going to be adapting Roald Dahl's "The BFG", I was taken back, why would someone as powerful (now) as Spielberg be adapting such a children's classic novel that would have been at better hands from a more younger filmmaker? But, I started to think more on a positive note, the combination of Spielberg + Roald Dahl + Disney and even screenwriter, the late Melissa Mathison (who wrote the classic "E.T."), this is a combination that could not fail.

I am underwhelmed, 'The BFG' is a missed opportunity more than anything else, a movie so caught up within its magic, that it forgets to make us (the audience) invested in its story or the characters.

The movie focuses on a little orphan girl named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill), who, after looking out her window one night, sees a mysterious giant whom she later calls "The BFG" (a very convincing Mark Rylance) and this giant takes her away to his hometown, known as "Giant Country". This is where the first disappointment comes in, as Giant Country does not look all that fascinating as it should have, but the movie does have the look of "Harry Potter" meets "The Hobbit", the aesthetic matches some of Spielberg's best talents when it comes to fantasy, but there is no deeper look, nor is there any awe of the world famous Giant Country.

The Giant and Sophie swap some secrets and life stories with one another, the giant tells Sophie about the other giants in the town, most of whom actually eat little humans. He tries to keep her away from the evil Fleshlumpeater (Jemiane Clement) who is very vocal about wanting to eat humans. The Giant also tells Sophie about how he manages to capture dreams in jars, and how they come in the form of these mysterious floating glows in various colors. He can bring the best dreams to those who need it, and he can collect more and keep the nightmares to those who are not so worthy.

The problems with this movie is that, for a movie that is only supposed to be 1 hour and 57 minutes long, it actually feels longer than it should. There were times where I grew restless, and the movie ponders along showing us nothing but amazing shots of whatever it is the giant presents to Sophie. There is nothing of interest going on for a long time to catch out attention. I can also confirm that the children at my theater were also fidgeting a lot, to the point where the parent accompanying them had to take them outside for a few minutes due to their boredom, and they came back just to see the last half-hour of the film.

The way that this movie jumps from "A" to "B" seemed very abrupt, the little girl and the giant just cook up some idea to get to Buckingham Palace, and they get there and all of a sudden, the movie ends within half an hour. For the first two acts, it pondered and plodded for so long, that the movie had to end as quickly as possible to prevent the movie's run time from getting longer.

Overall, 'The BFG' is a charming fantasy adventure, but there is a lack of thrill and excitement, no sense of wonder and no dark moments. It's just charming, but not the kind of film that will one day become a classic. For a Spielberg project, he has done better.