Monday, August 16, 2021

Movie review: Fantasy Island

 

Fantasy Island is a magical place where secret dreams come true. Run by Mr. Roarke, guests at the tropical resort live their dreams up until they turn to nightmares and then must solve the island's mystery to survive.

Michael Pena (Mr. Roarke), Maggie Q (Gwen), Lucy Hale (Melanie), Austin Stowell (Patrick), Jimmy Yang (Brax), Portia Doubleday (Sloane), Ryan Hansen (JD), Michael Rooker (Damon), Parisa Fitz-Henley (Julia).

Fantasy Island launches pretty well with some interesting plot setup and character introductions. From there the film turned into a fairly bland suspense style mystery. Guests to the island are allowed to live out a single fantasy however, the island is a bit twisted and so the fantasies take dark turns the guests don't expect. The guests then need to solve the island's mystery to survive, though how exactly that works is itself a mystery. The biggest disappointment with this one; it had none of the energy or fun of the original series and was instead dark and negative.

Acting was actually good here with Pena doing a nice job. Maggie Q was decent, if a bit stiff. Hale was fun as was Stowell, Yang, and Hansen. Doubleday fit her role well and delivered, as did Rooker, also in type. The remainder of the cast was solid and enjoyable.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were decent with a fairly solid feel and good fit. Action was good with nice intensity and detail. Dialogue was reasonable and moved things along, though the humor was flat. Sound and soundtrack are solid.

Overall Fantasy Island is a low-energy horror fantasy flick which many will enjoy. Those hoping to find an extension of the TV series will be seriously disappointed.

With some mild sexuality and nudity, violence, gore, and a few foul words, this should be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2020
Reviewed: 8.15.21
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Horror, Action, Fantasy, Adventure

copyright ©2021 Dave Riedel

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