Ultimately as someone who kept up with the lore of the games and watched the playthroughs from YouTubers like Markiplier and watched the endless theories MatPat suggested, the film was ultimately good in my opinion. Not the best, but not rock bottom. For starters, I loved the fact that the animatronics were actually designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop with the smallest attention to detail, and the cinematography accentuates the creepy tone of the games quite well. The actors for the most part did well with special praise going to Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard.
That being said, it is not perfect. The pacing issues are noticeable with the film feeling rushed in places instead of taking the time to let the story play out naturally. The worldbuilding also suffers a bit for anyone who is not familiar with the franchise because the movie hinges on you being knowledgeable of what came before so much so, the film lacks a bit of an identity of its own. Take the games out of the equation and say the film is a standalone. Does it work as a movie?
Eh. The plot is very generic and predictable even which would not be much of an issue but when you have films like Willy's Wonderland or The Banana Splits Movie that arguably take the idea of murderous animatronics as far as it could despite being rip-offs of FNAF, there is really nothing new that the film offers. It also suffers from tonal inconsistencies which, again, would be due to how the games are known for their tongue-in-cheekness and humor. But it doesn't successfully transfer over into the movie sad to say.
The dialogue can also come across as wonky with some of the characters' decisions making no sense because of how the film poorly develops them.
That being said, the film is a love letter to the people who played the games and read the novels, and I will not take that away from them since I also love the franchise. However, I feel that the film could have done so much more to where it was accessible to everyone with a tighter script rather than just relying on a particular audience. It was a fun time, but here's hoping the sequel improves over the first film.
Film Fans Will Love It, But The Film Has Its Problems
Ultimately as someone who kept up with the lore of the games and watched the playthroughs from YouTubers like Markiplier and watched the endless theories MatPat suggested, the film was ultimately good in my opinion. Not the best, but not rock bottom. For starters, I loved the fact that the animatronics were actually designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop with the smallest attention to detail, and the cinematography accentuates the creepy tone of the games quite well. The actors for the most part did well with special praise going to Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard.
That being said, it is not perfect. The pacing issues are noticeable with the film feeling rushed in places instead of taking the time to let the story play out naturally. The worldbuilding also suffers a bit for anyone who is not familiar with the franchise because the movie hinges on you being knowledgeable of what came before so much so, the film lacks a bit of an identity of its own. Take the games out of the equation and say the film is a standalone. Does it work as a movie?
Eh. The plot is very generic and predictable even which would not be much of an issue but when you have films like Willy's Wonderland or The Banana Splits Movie that arguably take the idea of murderous animatronics as far as it could despite being rip-offs of FNAF, there is really nothing new that the film offers. It also suffers from tonal inconsistencies which, again, would be due to how the games are known for their tongue-in-cheekness and humor. But it doesn't successfully transfer over into the movie sad to say.
The dialogue can also come across as wonky with some of the characters' decisions making no sense because of how the film poorly develops them.
That being said, the film is a love letter to the people who played the games and read the novels, and I will not take that away from them since I also love the franchise. However, I feel that the film could have done so much more to where it was accessible to everyone with a tighter script rather than just relying on a particular audience. It was a fun time, but here's hoping the sequel improves over the first film.