★★
Starring Mark Rylance, Ruby Barnhill, Penelope Wilton, Jemaine Clement, Rebecca Hall, Rafe Spall, Bill Hader
Directed by Steven Spielberg
2016 / 117 Minutes / Walt Disney Pictures
They really missed the mark on this one. The creativity, imagination and heart has been sucked out of this and all that’s left is one really boring movie. I’m not surprised that this didn’t resonate with audiences and was such a box office dud.
The BFG starts off fun and full of energy and for a short moment I thought maybe this will be good. Suddenly 15 minutes in and it begins to unravel into this disappointing emotionless mess. My interest was gone and these characters that Dahl created became dull and lifeless. What happened??? There is no chemistry between this giant and the little girl. Is this not supposed to be about their friendship? There was nothing.
The effects are great, but I find with a movie like this that if it becomes so effect heavy the story gets lost, and that is exactly what happens here. Everything on screen is all computer animated except for the girl so why not just makes this an animated film. After a while this all just started feeling like a make work project for special effects artists and less about the story.
A positive about The BFG is Ruby Barnhill and Mark Rylance’s performances were great. Barnhill is quite good considering she is acting against green screens for a large part of this.
I hate to diss Spielberg because 90% of the time his films are good if not excellent, but once in a while one comes along and really misses hard. This one falls into the same bucket as The Adventures of Tin Tin, another lifeless boring animated film that no one is going to remember in 10 years, unlike his other films.
Sadly The BFG is one of the most unimaginative dull films I’ve seen. Skip this mess and either read the book again or go watch The Iron Giant if you want something that accomplishes friendship and emotion perfectly.
Grade D+
