This is a children’s film that’s inappropriate for children,
as physical and psychological torture porn have now crept into children’s
films, while it’s also inappropriate for adults, as this is really just a
children’s film that has little to do with actual children. So who is the audience for a film like
this? That’s likely only part of the
problem, as it’s a bit too preposterous to be taken seriously, while what’s
worse is nonchalantly juxtaposing such deeply disturbing adult immorality into
the actions of children. The kids could
easily be cast for Wes Anderson’s Moonrise
Kingdom (2012), as they’re young and innocent, some probably not even in
their teens yet, with some with those high pitched children’s voices where boys
can still sing soprano in the church choir.
The entire film takes place in the woods where all boys, and one
tomboyish older girl, are playing a two-team war game that is little more than
capture the flag, with strange rules about how to actually register a kill, as
otherwise kids can get shot, but if not killed within ten seconds, they can
spring back to life and stay in the game.
Once killed, you are instructed to go home. In this manner, certain characters that are
around in the beginning of the film have long since left by the end. The two teams have leaders, where the most
realistic aspect of the film is kids getting an attitude about having to take
instructions from somebody else instead of just doing what you want, as any
adult could be interchangeable with the leader, and many kids would be just as upset
being told what to do. Of course, boys
are thrown off their game with a girl playing, as they don’t exactly know what
to make of a girl in the game, where one suggests she use her exotic powers as
a girl to get another boy’s attention before killing him.
But that’s not the way this game plays out, as early on kids
want to ignore the rules and get a quick advantage by cheating, thinking it
would be so much simpler that way. Enter
PK (Gage Munroe), a short kid with a Napoleonic complex—no not because of his
diminutive size, but because he’s read books and actually studied Napoleon’s
battle tactics, so in over a dozen games this kid is undefeated in this particular
war game. He doesn’t wish to blemish his
record by cheating, so he orders his soldiers to play fair, despite their
disgruntled anger, but we soon discover the other team isn’t remotely playing
fair at all, so there’s an unseen psychological struggle going on in the woods
that effects each and every one of the kids.
What appears to be innocent fun isn’t that at all, as some kids are
getting beat up, another is continually tortured, where some only exhibit weird
personalities with toilet humor obsessions, the kind of things that suggests
many of these kids have little to no social skills and are likely
friendless. While the film pushes the
limits of what people are willing to endure for the sake of friendship, one has
to ask why would they allow themselves to get beat up and not go home? Why would they stick around for more
abuse? And that’s exactly what these
directors have in store for us, as one of the team leaders, Skinner (Michael Friend)
develops psychotic tendencies, where he enjoys hurting other kids, always
threatening to make matters even worse, which suggests he’s mentally unstable. What kid wants to play war games in the woods
with mentally unstable characters? When
it reaches this stage, it stops being fun, as kids are getting hurt, and at
some point, escalating the brutality, something horrific could really
happen. Watching Napoleon and Mussolini
wannabe’s try to psychologically mix it up with ever more unpleasant dirty
tactics is just not much fun to watch.
While one could easily take this as an allegory for the absurdly
moronic behavior of adult warfare, where all rules are off, winning by any
means is the real goal, but these kids aren’t even old enough to be in high
school, where they couldn’t possibly understand the degree of human savagery
involved. And let’s face it, who would
ever want to play this game again? But
here kids just suck it up and endure endless torture of a psychotically
disturbed kid, only to escape, and rather than go home, they willingly walk
right back into the same trap all over again.
The other galling aspect of the movie is the pure idiocy of kids
supposedly remaining hidden from view, but instead they’re walking right out in
the open, talking loudly as can be, making themselves the easiest targets to
spot, yet this behavior continues throughout the film. There are plenty of moments where enemy
targets are standing right in front of them and are simply ignored, no
explanations offered, where it’s as if the game stops while kids verbally
threaten and intimidate one another, and no one has the wherewithal to just end
it right there. The directors do add a
few visual twists, where the stick rifles in their hands become sophisticated
guns firing real bullets, whether automatic guns and rifles, or bazookas. One kid seems to be practicing his use of
X-Ray vision, where if he concentrates hard enough he can make his target
explode. Afterwards, of course, we
realize this is all just his imagination.
But the psychotic behavior and brutal torture tactics are never
imaginary, becoming all too real, where it’s literally uncomfortable watching
kids engage in such disturbingly sick behavior, never having the good sense to
just stop and go home. When all is said
and done, this film offers very little human insight, where the war game itself
never materializes, as most aren’t even playing the game half the time. There’s
not a single kid who’s actually having any fun, as the kids taunt and abuse one
another throughout, where the film is instead an expression of a bullying psychotic
weirdo taking over the game while other kids timidly let him. Stay home already, anything’s better than
being subject to more of this phony baloney, a candidate for one of the worst
films seen this year.
