When Sophie should be sleeping at night she is actually wandering about the orphanage were she lives. One night she sees a giant who takes her because of this, but after realising he isn’t going to eat her they strike up a friendship instead.
I will admit that I was rather excited for this film from the first trailer that I saw which feels like a very long time ago now. The build up around the film has been rather big as well, unfortunately though I forgot to go in search of the Dream Jars when in London on Wednesday! But little things like that really do build up towards a film like this, who better to try and capture the magic of a live action (partly) film based on the beloved book. I remember loving the animated film as a child and yes I really do have it on my watchlist on Amazon Video.
When the majority of people know the story you then have to add something else to the film surely Spielberg is the man to do this, we all know how gifted he is when it comes to film making and setting those scenes. I have to say from a visual point of view it really is stunning at times, especially when we get to see the dreams in the jars and at the tree. It looks fantastic and the BFG looks pretty good as well. But with just that it still seems to be missing something.
I thought Mark Rylance was the perfect choice to voice the BFG and you could slightly see that it was his face with some of the expressions which is always a good way to go with the use of CGI. The same for the other giants who you could slightly recognize to the actors portraying them. That does give them an extra edge and makes everything feel a little bit more real.
Our main character Sophie, a girl you cannot help but feel sorry for. She doesn’t really have anything in life and doesn’t really enjoy her existence. The giant helps her see things in a different way especially when it comes to the dreams. Not something to be taken lightly they can make you feel better after all. Being in giant country is not a safe place for her though and this actually makes BFG change and stand up for himself instead of just letting the other giants push him around, he is actually pretty small for a giant.
The thing I do like though is the use of Roald Dahl’s words which at times don’t make a massive amount of sense, but you can still get the gist of what the giant means. That is certainly something that makes it feel special and certainly makes you smile. As it went on I was trying to remember the different parts of the story, some I could and wondered how it was going to work in this film.
I would say that I enjoyed the film with the different use of CGI as well as Rylance who is one of my favourites at the moment, I am sure he is a lot of people’s favourites. A good and engaging breakthrough performance for Ruby Barnhill who had everything in such a good way, Spielberg certainly seems to bring out good performances from the child actors in his films that is for sure.
BFG still has magic and creates a good story to this day!
