Reviews

I watched this without knowing anything about the videogame series except that the kids all love the concept of it, and played it somewhat. Those kids are teens now, and still mostly love the idea of FNAF, including all the cultural stuff outside the games.

So, I went to the movies on a Tuesday night with low expectations, except I'd seen the generally poor reviews.

It's true that the acting is pretty poor and mostly wooden. The dialogue is often ridiculously inane and the ending is beyond predictable. But, that all fits with this kind of movie. It's mild schlock horror, mostly safe for kids, the story drags you along despite yourself, and with a box of popcorn by your side it makes for a decent night out. I'm glad I saw it on the big screen - it made me stick through the whole thing, and I'm glad I did.

I was quite satisfied with this movie. I do wish I had seen it with my 12 year old son because I'm fairly sure he'd have enjoyed it too. Why? Because the whole story, plotline, characterization, basic concepts, love interest, action, bad guy - the whole shebang - is so clearly directed at "young adults" that anyone of my ancient age trying to judge it on the basis of those elements is going to be asking too much of it. But kids, and anyone who likes dystopian science fantasy action films will do too. And there's a good amount of humor in it too.

This was a hugely enjoyable piece of nonsense. I mean, the whole city of London on treadmills, eating up little German villages? With a hunt for a massive weapon of mass destruction? And imitation Twinkie bars that have lasted a thousand years?

Non-stop action, check. Tolerable dialogue, check. No uncomfortable love scenes that will make teens and preteens embarrassed, check. Obviously bad, bad guy, check. Great CGI, check. Did I mention the pretty much non-stop action?

The characters are pretty two dimensional, but sympathetic enough. The concept is fun to watch - steampunk does Star Wars. As dystopian visions of the world it goes pretty well, and I don't mind seeing my home town as the collective bad guys. I mean, come on, when isn't the bad guy from Britain?

It's not Blade Runner, but it's not Valerian either. I'll watch it again, but next time with my son.

I really wanted to like this. I should know better than to trust Peter Bradshaw, critic for the Guardian, but everything sounded right. I really was willing to give it every chance, even waiting for the tragedy that had Peter Bradshaw crying first time he watched it.

The only tragedy with this film is that it is so tedious. The characters are two-dimensional. The plot, such as it is, is OK - it's a kind of everyday miserable life in Latin America if you're not in the posh classes. For servants, it can be rough, although not particularly for the ones in this particular household.

Then there's the cinematography. I think someone else has mentioned the panning. It never stops. In the streets, in the house, the camera goes on forever, adding minutes of time that I will never get back, without adding anything to the story.

The filming itself is nice and sharp, but that has the odd effect of making it feel consciously like a film set. Just too staged, and not at all that kind of fly on the wall feel you get from some movies that drag you into the characters' minds and lives.

There's a sense of impending doom that the plodding plotline can't really pull off. To be honest, the whole movie could have done with a bit more tragedy, and maybe a bit less wooden acting. Yes, I know the one person is not a professional actor, but that doesn't make her acting any good, or believable.

I regret watching this. The three stars are mainly because it's an interesting subject, and it does capture a bit of the zeitgeist of the early 1970s. But it could have been much, much better.

The reasons people are giving for disliking this are dodgy at best.

1. They don't like antifa 2. They don't like socialism 3. They don't like the modern reworking of something they really liked as kids, like the Errol Flynn version, or, *shudder* the Kevin Costner one 4. They don't like its fast and loose interpretation of the myth of Robin Hood 5. They don't like it being sympathetic towards a Muslim.

So. I saw it with my 12 year old son, who described it as 'lit'. It feels like it's got a fair amount of social commentary. There's plenty of diversity (including Little John). The parallels with modern day war interventions are made blindingly obvious.

It's a bit like Snatch, or Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels meets the Merrie Men. You have to like that in your face British attitude to enjoy it, but also let go of the idea that there was nothing else at play in 14th century England.

The baneful influence of the Catholic Church is very well done, and the fight scenes are quite enjoyable. There really isn't too much gore and violence, so I'd say this is quite suitable for kids who like action movies.

The only bad part from my point of view (and not my son's) was the speech that was supposed to inspire the locals to fight against the Sheriff's bad guys. It was terrible. And uninspiring. And luckily only lasted about two minutes before we got back to good guys beating up bad guys.

There's lots of explosions, decent bow and arrow fights, and general mayhem to make this a really enjoyable Friday night movie. We watched it on a Tuesday. Made it feel like a Friday, and the movie whizzed by.

I was going to give this 10 stars to counter the 1 star reviews that are way out of line, but I've edited it to make it a 7.