Plenty of critics say Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg has made another endearing family film with his version of Roald Dahl’s 1982 children’s story The BFG.
Expectations were that if anyone had what it takes to do justice to Dahl’s story about the friendship between a kind-hearted giant and an orphaned girl it would be Spielberg.
Not all reviews are glowing but most appreciate The BFG.
Working with his longtime collaborator, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, the film’s visuals were pretty much universally appreciated. Same has been said about Mark Rylance’s portrayal of the big friendly giant which manages to transcend the motion-capture technology.
For a taste of the film’s visuals watch the The BFG promo from Disney Movie Trailers:
See a mixture of reviews from The BFG below.
JUDGEMENT
“The BFG is big friendly giant of a film from a director who knows how to make films on that note and on that scale. With boldness and sweep, he creates a Spielberg-BFG myth with hints of Oscar Wilde’s selfish giant, Jack and the Beanstalk and the Nutcracker Suite. I wondered a bit if Spielberg can quite respond to the dark core of unfriendliness in Dahl’s writing — that gleeful nastiness which children love, and which makes their parents uncomfortable, especially those who see how it dovetails with his adult stories.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
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“Rather, the movie represents the director in a more pensive, even philosophical vein, less interested in propulsive cinema and more reflective about what would seem to mean the most to him — dreams, and the ability to make them come true. This is what The BFG is about but, unfortunately, that is basically all it’s about, and by a considerable measure too explicitly and single-mindedly so.” Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
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“But as the film plays, the technology itself just melts away. You’re watching a girl and a giant explore a landscape of astonishments – and while the note-perfect script, written by the late Melissa Matheson (who also scripted E.T.), treats Dahl’s words with radiant respect, it also subtly reworks them to make the story cinematic to its soul.” Robbie Collin, The Telegraph
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“Anyone under 10 reading this, be assured: much here will delight you. Otherwise, the keenest observers may be students of Spielberg, noting the nod back to E.T. in a vault across a moonlit sky and a mismatched friendship for a lonely child. The director keeps his sweet tooth mostly in check, but can’t resist the verbal manglings that Dahl gave his hero.” Danny Leigh, Financial Times
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“But during a climactic helicopter roundup of evil giants, you want the movie to go for broke and start provoking something more than easy laughter and tears. E.T. did that brilliantly and so did Close Encounters of the Third Kind — family films that could keep mom and dad up nights along with the kids. Regrettably, The BFG plays it too nice and falls short.” Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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“Brimful of the anarchic magic so sorely missing from Spielberg’s ill-fated Peter Pan project, Hook, The BFG sees the director rediscovering his inner child in winning fashion. Like the eponymous figure, the result may be a little lumbering at times, but it is also ultimately irresistible.” Mark Kermode, The Guardian
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“While the film is a largely faithful adaptation of its source, Spielberg and Mathison have toned down some of Dahl’s exuberance: they have fun with the stupidity and meanness of the bad giants, but cut most of the gruesome jokes about the tastiness of ‘human beans’.” Jake Wilson, The Sydney Morning Herald
But what about you? How do you rate The BFG?
Watch a positive The BFG video review by Chris Stuckmann: