The BFG review
Okay, here’s the movie you should’ve seen this Fourth of July weekend, but apparently didn’t. That’s too bad because if you ever end up catching this on TV or VOD someday, you’re gonna be sad you didn’t see this sooner, because The BFG is pretty great. It’s definitely not Spielberg’s best, but it’s still Spielberg, and there’s no one in the film industry today quite as good as Spielberg. I’ll say this straight up front though, it’s a movie for made first and foremost for children. If you’re an adult, you’ll probably like this too, but it’s focus is clearly on kids about ages 6-12. There’s nothing wrong with that either; we’re still gonna have our Lego Movie’s and Zootopia’s and Finding Dory’s that are basically good for everyone. But it’s not so bad to have a movie every now and then that doesn’t talk DOWN to children so much as it talks WITH them, and that’s basically what The BFG is.
The performances are great as usual. Mark Rylance is here playing the title character and also reminding me why he deserved that best supporting actor Oscar from last year, and newcomer Ruby Barnhill proves to be another one of Spielberg’s signature child-actor finds. John William’s musical score was really excellent. There are a lot of harp-interludes thrown in that help add this dreamlike layer to the whole experience that I really enjoyed. The CGI here was mostly good. The movie’s about 70% CGI and a lot of the Giant designs look cartoonish and unnatural, but I get the impression that it’s supposed to add to the layer of unreality of the Giant world. Or I’m just projecting onto the movie but I really don’t care! Here’s the thing, almost the ENTIRE first half of this movie is Spielberg in his element. It’s literally Spielberg just touring us around new environments and introducing us to new characters and concepts, and it is honestly some of the most engrossing filmmaking I’ve seen all year. When Spielberg wants to make a kids movie, he can tap into an audience’s sense of childlike awe in a way few other filmmakers can. And he almost manages to keep it up for like 50 minutes straight! True, this does make the somewhat more plot heavy second-half seem a little more awkward and not as good by comparison, but if that’s the price I have to pay in order to feel like a kid again, so be it!
Most of the problems I have with this movie don’t have much to do with the filmmaking and more with the source material. Roald Dahl is a children’s book author who I honestly just don’t like very much. The books of his I was exposed to as a kid were usually full of stuff that just bugged me for one reason or another. However, it’s clear that Spielberg fundamentally “gets” The BFG and all the basic elements that make it a classic, and has managed to smooth over and more fully develop some of that original stuff that bugged me personally. He does make a few additions here and there that were probably just there to pad out the runtime to a full two hours, but they’re never jarring and still stay mostly true to the original spirit of book. What’s actually most impressive is how Spielberg implements what I thought for sure just straight-up wouldn’t work in today’s movie-going environment. Specifically there’s an extended fart-joke gag lifted straight from the book that I was sure was going to come across as annoying and childish, and which certainly would’ve if ANYONE else was directing. However where most directors would either horribly mismanage this or just scrap it altogether, Spielberg just embraces it fully and decides to go all the way with it. And yeah I won’t lie, I actually thought it was hilarious when all was said and done! That’s probably the secret underneath all this; that behind all the flair Spielberg still wants to make a movie for kids. And again I’ll reiterate that it is a movie for kids, and kids should be the one’s who are seeing this. If you want a Spielberg movie for adults, then you should’ve seen Bridge of Spies last year.
I’m sure there are gonna be people out there who just straight up won’t enjoy any part of this movie. Heck, I’m sure there will be kids out there who’ll think this just isn’t for them, and that’s fine. For me however, The BFG was a blast and will probably be remembered as one of my favorite movies of 2016.
The Media Fire gives this movie 8.9/10
