The BFG

A pleasant, beautifully shot visual treat with nothing wrong filmmaking-wise, but the whole thing flows so casually, freely and focused that everyone will be looking only for the flaws. Magical atmosphere, lovely cinematography and setting, irresistibly charismatic Mark Rylance.... Spielberg can create family stories around child heroes more engagingly than anyone ever. (29/01/2017)

The movie didn't seem bad for the most part, but from the first scene with the Queen, I liked it less and less. From then on, it seemed to be aimed purely at a children’s audience, the dialogue and would-be funny scenes got infantile to the point that I didn't even want to wait and see how the story would end. I stuck it out and got the expected dose of poignant speeches and British army heroism. To sum it up, about 60% of the film was entertaining, the rest was terrible. The funniest character was definitely the Fleshlumpeater, the main antagonist, excellently voiced by Jemaine Clement. (13/01/2017)

A magical Disney fantasy movie about a girl who "still has a lot of dreams to catch" and a giant who can make those dreams - at least some of them - come true. Steven Spielberg has given The BFG with his trademark perfectionism, and although it is indeed primarily a film intended for children, adults will also find something to like in it if at least a little bit of a child remains in them. After all, the message of this rarely unhurried film is so universal... The two lead actors (Ruby Barnhill, who I hope we'll hear from again, and the digital Mark Rylance, whose digital form hasn't taken anything away from him) are terrific, the direction has plenty of ideas (the giant's hiding from humans, Sophie's hiding from ogres), the scenes are magnificent (dream catching), and the humor, unlike Hook, is perhaps not downright simple (not even in the case of the farting, which is very funny). John Williams' music, reminiscent of Home Alone in places, is once again perfect, this time adorned with beautiful flute solos. I'm just a little sorry that The BFG got to the movie theatres only with dubbing. It's not bad, but you can see that in the original version some of the emotional scenes will be even more emotional. And I'm saving the fifth star for that. (03/09/2016)

A bit of a vegetarian agitprop. Spielberg decided to revive this project probably because of his weakness for Mark Rylance’s acting charms. And because of the possibilities of WETA Digital, which he didn’t have in the 1980s. The BFG is a magical trip into a child’s imagination with a soundtrack by John Williams, embellished by precise set designs and emotionally filled with Rylance’s eyes and great motion capture of his movements. The poetic theme of dreams and the concept of the land of giants are used well and the story is unpredictable. If it hadn’t been for those weird things that start happening in the last third of the film, it would have been a worthy successor to Spielberg’s best fantasies. (28/09/2016)

I'll admit, I didn't have high expectations for this Steven Spielberg film, but it simply turned out that he knows how to direct, and Roald Dahl wrote intriguing source material. The story is lovely, and imaginative, but the execution mainly relies on fantastic visuals, which were successful. There is little to fault with that. The characters are often almost unnecessary, the best being the BFG and Sophie, which is probably to be expected. (09/01/2017)