Hey ya'll, because the Fnaf 2 movie is coming out tomorrow, I thought I would give my own review on the first one. I rewatched it for the fourth or fifth time I believe with my friend @CLLLOBEE a couple days ago.

To be blunt right off the bat, the movie was terrible. I'm not going to say that it's devoid of quality elements, there is plenty to latch onto here and I can see why so many people love this movie.

With that said, from my own perspective, this was less than handsome. Let's start with said quality elements.

First of all, the costumes for all of the animatronics are obviously top tier. I do have some very minor nitpicks about them, but I'll get to that later. The set design is immaculate and the cinematography is honestly really damn solid.

There are a lot of really well composed sots in this, that zoom in on the pizzeria's logo, a lot of the exterior shots of the pizzeria, yata yata. Matthew Lillard as Afton is obviously top tier.

Afton has more personality in this than he had in any of the games and I'm honestly a big fan of how he's presented in this, alongside the phenomenal facial and vocal acting in some scenes, courtesy of Matthew.

For example, the scene where he's talking to Mike on the phone and the way he says "the owner isn't ready to let go of the place" is really good. A lot of his acting is subtle, but when you pay attention to the way he says certain words, it's honestly really damn solid.

One of my favorite scenes aside from the Spring Bonnie and Springlock failure ones is when he first figures out who Mike is and that look he gives him at the start of the film, amazing.

When Abby and Mike's acting isn't flat, I do really like them as characters. I wish we got to see more of their bond, but the little we did get was honestly endearing. When Mike's nightmare isn't repeated 30 fucking times, I like how dream like it feels, helped by the amazing cinematography.

That scene where Mike briefly talks to his brother again before giving it all up just to save Abby is very touching, great acting from Josh Hutcherson. Oh and also, the cameos were funny, I liked those, lol.

Okay, now let's get into the rest of the film because, I'll just be totally honest, it really sucked. The opening is probably the best part, I'm a big fan of the build up to Mike getting the job. I do think that having his custody struggles be the driving motivation to work at Freddy's is a good idea on paper.

Before we get into anything else, I need to address a big issue I have with Afton sending Mike to Freddy's. So, when they first meet and Afton gives Mike the job, you would probably assume that he's doing it to kill him right?

There's a lot of conflicts when it comes to that though. When he's yelling at Vanessa later on, he tells her "you had one job, one. Keep him in the dark, and kill him if he got too close"

Key word there, IF he got too close. Which honestly begs the question of, if he didn't want to kill Mike on base one, why did he send him there period?

What was the point of him going to Freddy's, to die? If so, why did he even send Vanessa in or go through any of this bullshit? If his whole goal is to tie up loose ends and all that, why do this in such a complex way? After all, the more time he spends at Freddy's, ESPECIALLY around Vanessa, the closer he will get to the truth.

Why not wack him from base one? It doesn't make any sense. Again, maybe I'm overthinking this and there's some other answer I'm missed, but the way this is handled, mixed with a lot of other plot details really muddles the plot and it turns into a mess.

Another plot point that kinda screws with everything is Vanessa. I'm not sure if this is a hot take or not, but I honestly don't think she should've been in the film. There are times where it feels like she's just a plot dump character.

She goes into Freddy's, calls Mike suspicious out of nowhere, bandages him up, and goes on a mini monologue about the restaurant and all of that. And also, no disrespect to Elizabeth Lail, but her acting in this is VERY flat. It's probably not even her fault either, it was most likely whatever directing she was under, or the script, or whatever.

Point is, Vanessa does not add a lot in most scenes and she really only feels like she's here to bridge the gap of some plot details like springlocks and all that.

I think that's another issue with the movie, it did have the time to give us major plot details like what springlocks are, what Freddy's is, how the kids die, etc. They just piss away a lot of their time and it makes it to where there isn't enough of it to explain those plot points.

A lot of the early scenes of the film are spent with Mike dreaming or Mike's aunt plotting, etc. You could be using that time to develop and flesh things out more but it's not.

I do understand that this is a movie for fans and it does work in that way. But at the end of the day, this is also a movie, not a series of games that explains everything. Hell those don't even do that properly, lmao.

If you're making a movie based on a video game, that's fine, but you need to strike a balance between fans and normal movie viewers. If you're just making a film for one side of the coin or the other, then why are you making it period?

Anyways, back on subject. The custody plotline starts off interesting, and then gets more and more pointless throughout. While I think the break in scene is fine, I'm still really annoyed that it's one of the only scenes that the animatronics get any action.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but the animatronics just don't get enough to do in this. Even during the final battle, a lot of them just kind of stand still and get dealt with.

Even characters who do get screentime like Foxy have scenes repeated. Three whole damn times, Foxy gets to rundown the hallway and scare someone. The guard at the start, Jeff, and Mike. It was cool the first time and it just loses it's punch when you do it two other times.

Not to mention, the Cupcake was such an awful addition, I'm sorry. It would be fine if it got like one or two scenes, but for some reason that I cannot understand, it does all of this stuff while the others are stuck eating shit.

Even during the most important moment in the film, Afton getting springlocked, the fucking Cupcake instigates it while the others just stare at him. It's so frustrating, those are his victims. He took them away from their parents, destroyed their lives, and even manipulated them to be like him and kill people.

And yet all they do during the springlock scene is just stare at him while he dies, it's such a fucking letdown.

Speaking of the animatronics, I want to talk about a minor point that does kind of irk me. Everyone has obviously bitched about the orange eyes thing enough, but there's more than that.

The fear factor they have from fnaf 1 is obviously gone, and the worst part is how easy they could keep it intact.

I'm not going to lie and say that it's easy to perfectly capture what that first game had, because it's not, but you can get some of those elements.

The first thing is that, the animatronics are too expressive. I understand trying to make them that way because they're still kids, but like. Wouldn't it make more sense to make them sympathetic during those scenes where they look like kids, yet creepy during the scenes where they're the robots?

Like I'm sorry, but the animatronics doing their angry eyebrow shit is not scary, it's just not. The thing that made them so creepy in fnaf 1 is how dead inside they look. Their eyes don't glow, at least not normally, they're made of plastic after all.

Which makes it creepier when you notice how sunken in and lifeless they are, these aren't organic creatures, they're inventions from a long surpassed era, at least on the outside.

You can see their mechanical workings, you can see past the facade of a friendly face.

In the movie, they're still very stilled, but in a way that makes them look more goofy than anything, especially since they're still looking emotive while moving like that.

You can't have your cake and eat it too, either make them look robotic and stilled or not.

Like I said, I understand that these are meant to be kids still, but that's why you should have the scenes with the ghost kids. Instead of having them slice up Mike and all that, leave that job up to the robots.

To give an example, the fort scene. I don't think this scene is bad on paper, but it's the fact that it's the animatronics moving all the tables and making the fort that really wrecking balls whatever tension they could've had.

Make the scene from Abby's perspective, where she sees them as the kids. It would work better in humanizing them. Honestly, I think the scenes we do get with the ghost kids just don't cut it in terms of showing who they really are.

In a lot of them, they bleed from the eyes, attack Mike, etc. It doesn't really humanize them, it just kinda makes them look evil. Leave that shit to the animatronics full time and make it to where the kids come out of their shells and act friendly then they usually would.

Point is, I'm really not happy with how they're presented in this film, and it feels like a lot of missed potential.

Going back to the custody plotline, it kinda goes nowhere in the end. I would be a lot more forgiving if there was some closure to it, but there isn't. And it makes it feel like those scenes early on with the aunt and Max were wasted and should've been spent doing something more important.

I'm sure that there will be some more details on it in the second film, but honestly, that's not an excuse. The plotline shouldn't be wrapped with a bow, but there needs to be some kind of temporary conclusion instead of the aunt just getting knocked out and not getting mentioned again afterwards.

Something else minor that I want to address is Garret. This could age very poorly, but if Mike's dad isn't this universe's version of Henry, why would Silly Willy drive out to some campsite just to kidnap some random kid?

Isn't his whole routine just luring kids inside Freddy's with his suit? Maybe I'm missing something, but this honestly doesn't make any sense and I'm really hoping the second film addresses it.

The final fight in the movie is a mix of some good and really terrible stuff. I love Matthew's acting and how he portrays Afton, but there's just some big problems.

Number one, why the fuck doesn't Vanessa's shot set off the Springlocks? We established earlier how sensitive the Springlocks are, and if a sentient Cupcake can do it, why the hell not a bullet form a gun?

Second, why does William just stand there like a lemming and let Abby draw a new picture? He's RIGHT next to her with nothing in his way, he can go up to her and stop her, what is he doing?

I know that these may seem like minor gripes, but if you're going to write a movie, you have to have at least some scenes with logic instead of hinging a lot of stuff on suspension of disbelief.

I'm not sure what's with the building collapsing at the end. I don't care if it's "spirit energy" or some shit, it doesn't make any sense. lmao.

Overall, to wrap up this scattershot review, the movie was terrible. The beginning was decent, and everything after that was a stew of shit, mixed with some occasional good elements.

I hate to say that, I'm a giant fan of fnaf and I wanted this to be good so badly but it just wasn't, at least from my point of view. I've rewatched this four to five times now and it just gets worse everytime. I'm hoping that the second film fixes a lot of these issues, I know that Scott and a lot of the other writers have said multiple times that they are taking feedback and all that.

I also know that the people who have seen the film like Youtubers and such have loved it. Personally, I would like to watch the film first before I say anything.

For now though, I can only hope that it's an improvement, no matter how big or small.

3/10