An according washes onto the island? Seriously?
Amory Ross | Pennsylvania | 08/24/2010
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I bought this to present to an ESY class after they got very excited over the book. However, as soon as purchased it, and read the back I knew I was in for it. I decided to try it anyways.
First off, why do the kids need to be Americanized? Also, why do they also have to be from a military school? And why does the director basically destroy every impressive portion of the book? Did the director even have a desire to put events in order?
I'm assuming he made all the kids American because he thought this would relate better to middle-aged kids. I'm also not really sure what ALF has to do with the book, yet somehow the tv show about an alien finds its way into the script. To be even more impressive, glow sticks/ light sabers (and Rambo) find their way into this script, too.
One could vaguely see the reasoning behind make the students from military school, but that has very little to do with the book again. Perhaps the director was trying to establish a chain of command before they are put on the island.
So far, there's been next-to no mention of Samneric, no Percival Wemys Madison, no Beast from Water, no Beast from Air, and there's been an assassinated chameleon. I was excited to see how a movie would handle the scene with Simon and the Lord of the Flies but was let down immensely. The great conflict between Ralph and Jack is awful at best and the dichotomy of Jack and Piggy being the devil and angel, respectively, on Ralph's shoulders is not even touched upon. Actually, Jack's actor and his nominal acting ability is annoying. These characters just aren't believable. It's hard to take this movie seriously when Jack defects from Ralph's leadership within thirty minutes of the start. What could be a great study in book/ movie differences for a middle school or high school class is removed by the amount of cursing in this movie. I don't mind cursing every once in a while, but the cursing in this movie can't even come off well. Ralph doesn't even say, "Sucks to your ass-mar."
I advise you to save your money with this movie. Read the book and see what decent writing is all about. Luckily I got this movie locally and didn't waste money on shipping. Needless to say I won't be showing this awful rendition to students. I feel they'll laugh at it more than I am and ultimately lose them for good on a great book."