So my plan originally was for my first movie review to be either Peanuts or Spectre, but due to rescheduling plans to see both films, I ended up seeing a different movie entirely this past weekend. If you told me four months ago that I would pay to see the film adaptation of Goosebumps, I would have told you all that each and every last one of you is out of his or her mind. I thought the trailer for this movie was horrible. The CGI looked limp and uninspiring. Jack Black looked like he was doing this movie for the paycheck. It just came off as terrible execution all around and I thought for sure this would be a flop. That hurt me because I was genuinely looking forward to this movie as somewhat of a fan of the Goosebumps books growing up. Goosebumps was huge when I was in elementary school. Granted I only read like probably eight to ten of the books in the series, I found them to cheesy entertainment like the Captain Underpants books (now that movie will probably be as terrible as expected). Once news broke this was going to be Jumanji lite in terms of plot, I was a little skeptical, but not completely against the idea. Then, as previously stated, that trailer came out and it didn't look nearly as zany as one would expect an adaptation of Goosebumps to be. So once the reviews came out saying this was a light hearted good time, I thought to myself....really? Did these critics actually enjoy a movie that I thought looked completely disappointing? I knew that eventually I would have to end up seeing this out of shear curiosity.
And what did I think.....it was better than I expected it to be. Not saying this was a great movie. Far from it. I don't even know if I would consider it one of the better movies of 2015, but for what it was worth, it was pretty decent. For starters, the trailer COMPLETELY undersells the frantic nature of this movie. The movie does suffer from it's pacing and it's definitely noticeable at the beginning. You get introduced to all these characters right off the bat in a semi-rushed fashion. We get to know about why the new kid Zach (Dylan Minnette) and his mom (Amy Ryan in an unexpected casting choice to be completely honest) moved to suburban Delaware, that his neighbors include the girl next door Hannah (Odeya Rush) and an overprotective father in the overly secretive "Mr. Shivers" (Jack Black), the loser new best friend Champion (Ryan Lee), the dating hot mess aunt (Jillian Bell) and you literally meet all these characters so quickly and they get forced into their plot roles so fast that it doesn't let you sink into the characters in such a short amount of time because they want to get right to the plot.
But once the plot does kick in, it let's the characters breathe a bit so we can learn more about them while also handling the situations that arise so they can avoid being more than just tropes for the movie to the real stars: the antagonists. While we don't get to see all of the monsters obviously, it's R.L. Stine's creations that are the stars of the movie. Watching them interact with their surroundings is just great to see and it's done cleverly as well. Watching the Yeti at a frozen ice rink? Priceless. Seeing The Werewolf of Fever Swamp get distracted by a chew toy and raw meat? Hilarious. Seeing the giant praying mantis from A Shocker on Shock Street attack the city like a B-movie 50s horror film? Nostalgic. I honestly loved watching the creatures from the Goosebumps universe run havoc across the real world because it does remind me a bit of those classic B movie horror films from yesteryear and they interact with the surroundings they are put in so fittingly that I highly enjoyed those aspects of the movie. My only complaint about any of the Goosebumps characters was it's most iconic creation, Slappy from the Night of the Living Dummy saga. The fact that Slappy was the ringleader I had absolutely zero problems with. Of course he was because he's the face of the Goosebumps franchise with the amount of books that feature the character. But I really wish they explored his relationship with R.L. Stine more because it was heavily implied that he and Stine went way back. Was it more than just the Night of the Living Dummy saga? Because while I won't entirely spoil the plot twist of this movie, I thought it was obvious that his daughter was his greatest creation. Did Slappy loathe Stine for more than just being locked away in a book? That subplot could have used more explaining and detail to be honest.
As for the acting, let me get this out of the way now. This was the most on point I've seen Jack Black in a live action movie in nearly a decade. His comedic timing here reminded me why I enjoyed him because unless you count the Kung Fu Panda movies, Jack Black has been uninspiring in so many movies for so long that you could tell he was just going through the motions to get paid. However here, he didn't really need to do as much physical comedy or overacting as he's done before. He just had to do his role and just act like he's the master of this universe, which he does. He approaches everything with a serious, yet light-hearted pace. Whether it be making sure that his daughter Hannah stay away from Zach, knowing his creations and their weaknesses, acting like a mad scientist evil genius, being an author and knowing how the plot goes and how it should end accordingly. I enjoyed Jack Black here. Also the kids don't do too bad of a job here either. I would especially like to point out that while I'm unsure if Zach Minnette will get more of a spotlight boost from this, I think Odeya Rush could be featured more in the future. She seems to be a young actress who can get more roles being the girl next door type role. Amy Ryan is a great actress and I was definitely surprised to see a multiple time Academy Award nominee in a family horror comedy like this. She did great and that's no surprise to me. But may I ask in what universe would it be believable that Jillian Bell who is nearly twenty years younger than Amy Ryan would be her sister? I had a problem with that casting choice, not because Jillian Bell didn't do good. She was hilarious and it's easy to see why she is getting so many roles coming up (she'll be in Seth Rogen's new comedy next month as his wife), but that was a ridiculous sell to make us not notice that huge age difference.
Of course the comedy here was hit or miss. You have genuinely funny people in this movie at least in Jack Black and Jillian Bell, but holy crap was the humor here subpar what felt like most of the time. Sure you get a clever reference here and there and even a funny actual R.L. Stine cameo. But if you've heard one family comedy joke before, you'll hear it here again too. Like so many of these jokes have been used time and time again like saying save yourselves only for someone to run away and have the character say they were just joking for example. The moments the movie is legitimately funny is when it's trying not to be. Like watching these CGI monsters interact with their surroundings, that's funny. Watching the gym teacher try to be the obvious romantic interest for Zach's mom, only to constantly get turned away? That's hilarious. I wish the movie didn't try so hard on it's comedy aspect because it's the little things that make this movie good in terms of comedy.
So overall, while it's not great, I was legitimately surprised by Goosebumps. It just goes to show that first impressions are not always accurate because it turns out that I enjoyed my trip to go see Goosebumps. While this is not a movie I'm going to be craving to sit through again any time soon, I think Goosebumps was money well spent for a one time sit through. If anything, at least this wasn't the worst adaptation of a source material from my childhood (granted I haven't seen it, but I don't need to pay to tell you all that Jem and the Holograms will be atrocious). But yeah, this movie is decent enough. Just don't expect a new Halloween classic and you won't be disappointed.
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