Fantasy Island (2020) - critique and spoilers

Hi all!

Today we take a look at a movie, after quite a bit of time. This post first appeared sometime in 2020 on the old site/platform.  

Just because it's quarantine time due to the virus (in mid April when i started writing this), doesn't mean we can't watch movies anymore. So, we watched Fantasy Island, and I have opinions (who nobody asked for, of course).

I only recognized 2 actresses in this supernatural horror, Maggie Q (as Gwen Olsen). and Lucy Hale (as Melanie Cole), and one actor, Michael Rooker (as Damon). I actually wouldn't really call it horror, but a thriller for i didn't get scared one bit.

Those who watched the series from late 1970s are/will probably be confused a little by the action and some of the characters in this movie adaptation. The movie was rather confusing half-way through, as the producers didn't think about it well enough.

It appeared as if they started off on the right path, but then something happened and they lost their inspiration. Or whatever ideas came to them, seemed good. In my opinion, those ideas were crap.

Spoiler alert! Here is where i'll start really spoiling the movie. :( 

The plot revolves around a group of people who apparently won a contest to have a fantasy fulfilled. I got weird flashbacks to the I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, the late 1990s horror movie. This means trouble. Big trouble. I should rewatch that movie as it's been such a long time and it wasn't as popular as the first one.

So the group of people arrive on the island and they're told the rules: 1 fantasy per person. In the group, there are 2 step brothers and their fantasy starts right away, while the others are shown to their rooms as their fantasies are set to start a bit later. Nothing wrong so far. 

One of the guests, Gwen Olsen, is just too curious to learn how everything is possible and this can't really be good. She doesn't receive a straight answer, as expected. Gwen's fantasy starts the next day in the morning, and apparently she wanted to be married to her ex-boyfriend and have a family... 

Melanie Cole's fantasy also starts the next day. Apparently she held a grudge against her tormentor/bully from high school, who is brought to the island and Melanie gets to torture her thinking it's a hologram. She soon realizes that she's not seeing any hologram but the real bully and she all of a sudden decides to rescue her, as she felt bad for what she was doing. 

Through some twist of events, Gwen realizes there's something wrong with her fantasy, wants to change it. She gets her new fantasy, but she can't really do much to change the events, but realizes that everyone on the island, the other guests, minus Melanie, are connected to this event she wanted to change.

Somehow, everyone realizes at some point that there's something wrong with their fantasies, and they want to leave the island. However, they can't because they have to live out their fantasy, no matter how it will unwind. 

They also learn through twists of events, that it was Melanie who brought them all here, to take her revenge on all of them because she lost her boyfriend in the event Gwen tried to change. In the end, they manage to get rid of Melanie and to leave the island.

One of the brothers remains on the island and takes on the name Tattoo, so that his brother can go back home. This particular event somehow places this movie before the 1970s' series.

What i liked about the movie?

Gwen. She was the only one with her feet on the ground. She sadly realized too late that she chose the wrong fantasy to live out.

What's wrong with the movie?

Melanie being behind the whole thing was wrong. Especially since at the beginning she acted as if she was sorry for torturing her former bully. it really didn't make any sense. She went out of her way to try to convince her bully that both of them were kidnapped, but it didn't really work.  

After Melanie released her bully, they walked quite a lot around the island, with Damon as their guide - about 24 hours, if not more. However, they suddenly decided to go back to the torture room, and the time to reach it was far shorter - about 30 minutes? Given that this was a movie, of course they cut time down, so it's impossible to know how much time it really took them. But from the imagery alone, you get the impression it only took like 30 minutes to 1 hour, maybe not longer than 2 hours.

It was called a horror movie, but honestly, it was just a thriller. It wasn't really scary at all, just a few scenes here and there that would make your heart jump a little. It also had a little bit of action due to one of the fantasies.

Rating

I'll give this movie a solid 2 stars our of 5. It really could have been better thought out. The 180 that Melanie made was a real turn-off and a "what the hell happened?" moment. It really made zero sense to me.

Should you watch it? 

If you really have nothing better to do or watch and you're so curious, sure, why not? Maybe you'll like it more than i did.

©Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.