The BFG 2016 Movie Review

The BFG is a lovely movie filled with some drama, battles and a Big Friendly Giant. There just spoiled the movie for you. The new 2016 version of the old VHS classic has made some changes, like making the evil giants a whole lot less frightening then the 1989 version.

Sophie is a young orphan girl who spends her time in a rather mean orphanage, one night she decides to go outside and enjoy a bit of air but ends up being captured by the BFG. Sophie then finds out that the BFG isn't actually a threat, in fact he is so big and friendly that he goes and catches dreams so that the children of the world will have good dreams.

The BFG isn't the only giant in Giant Country though, he has a family of much bigger and stronger brothers that like to munch on "Human Beans" for their meals. However unlike the 1989 Version the evil giants come off as more of big brothers who like to mess with their little brother, not at all like the evil blood thirsty giants from 1989.

Sophie also comes off as different, the 1989 Version of Sophie is rather shy and meek and also is alot more timid then the 2016 version who comes off more rude and disrespectful. Sophie must team up with the BFG to help take down all the other giants, a task that requires the help of the Queen of England and her armies. A rather nice ending to the movie I may add.

The main threat of the movie is of course the giants, Fleshlumpeater is the leader of the band and likes to mess with the BFG quite alot. Since the other giants are much bigger they pick on the BFG alot, usually hurting him or making him suffer in some way. The BFG is quite scared of them so before Sophie comes around he never even thought of facing them.

There are multiple occasions on both versions where Sophie is nearly found and gobbled up, but she still remains alive and is the main reason the giants are captured and sent away. However the giants pose no real issue in the movie except towards the end, we know they do eat humans at night but we don't get to see it, in either movies.

During the main battle the giants are asleep till some bad nightmares wake them up, from then on many of them are taken up into the sky and away. Fleshlumpeater puts up a bit of a fight but not much. Much like in the original movie, but it had a bit more of a impact in the 1989 Version due to how much more frightening the giants looked and how the air felt in the movie.

The 2016 Version was much more family oriented, the giants had been turned into more of a joke and Sophie had become alot more rude.

Both versions of the movie are fairly good. The 1989 Version had better giant designs which made them more threatening, a more powerful impact when it came to the realization that there were children eating giants in the world and it had a lovely musical score with a great song sung by The BFG himself. Also Sophie wasn't as much of a jerk.

The 2016 Version was definitely dumbed down a bit: The giants no longer had their frightening appearance, the visuals while looked good for the movie left it more visually stunning rather then foreboding, it is a land of giants and it came off more as people living in Scotland, which I get it but it leaves no threatening look.

The problem with the 2016 Version is once again no threat, it is a movie about giants eating little kids, family version or not there has to be some sort of confrontation. Both movies had a scene where the giants would mess with the BFG and try to find Sophie but the atmosphere and how the giants from the 2016 Version acted left no sense of danger, even if the 1989 Version held little danger as well the way the Giant Country looked and how the giants looked at least made the world feel dangerous, instead we got a bunch of Jock like giants with a beautiful world to explore.

You cannot have a movie about children being abducted and then gobbled up only for the movie watcher to feel at ease, to feel a sense of wonder while watching the movie. They need to feel dread, to feel fear, to feel as if a giants hand will reach in through their window and grab them. A sense of wonder and joy is nice just not in a movie such as this

Either way it is still a rather nice movie to watch with the kids but I do recommend to watch the 1989 Version if you can.