The Neverending Story

The Neverending Story (1984)
Director: Wolfgang Petersen

It has always been difficult for me to believe that a 10 year old is a great warrior. I'm sorry; it just doesn't ring true to me. It works on paper (it always seemed plausible in C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia books) but on screen I can never believe that a little kid can kill a shark or a dragon or in this case a giant killer wolf. Good thing this little kid came around to save this castle full of cowardly adults.

The acting was pretty bad. The kids were consistently overacting (if you ever see a kid yell in anger at a book he is reading I will give you a dollar). I found the whole ending a little disturbing too. The Childlike Empress? Holy cow was that creepy. I don't know. They were talking about this Empress the whole time, I was picturing someone statuesque, grand and regal. But it was just another kid.

If you look on the IMDB it has very high ratings. Why is that if it isn't a very good film? I would guess it is because all the viewers saw the film when they were younger and fondly remember it even though they haven't seen it since they turned 12.

I love a good fantasy film; Willow, The Princess Bride, The Wizard of Oz, and Labyrinth are great (to name a few), but this film doesn't hold a candle to those ones. I feel like a film or book should be able to appeal to kids and adults too (Pixar movies always do a very good job of this) but this movie doesn't. Kids may like this film, but if you are over the age of 9 (or a youngster with a very discerning cinematic taste) I would skip it.

My rating: 2 out of 5