Produced by horror aficionado Jason Blum, Jeff Wadlow’s Fantasy Island received a fairly nice budget, but one wouldn’t know that by watching the disastrous film. Despite having mediocre actors, such as Lucy Hale, Fantasy Island fails to showcase much talent among the five lead actors.
The film consists of five different characters with five different storylines that ultimately come together to form one colossal connection. Their connection to one another explains why each of them have been chosen as a guest on the island. Many of the problems present in Fantasy Island are a result of trying to delve into each character’s life, leaving no room for character depth or development.
Wadlow’s Fantasy Island follows five guests: Melanie Cole (Lucy Hale), Gwen Olsen (Maggie Q), Brax Weaver (Jimmy O. Yang), JD Weaver (Ryan Hansen) and Patrick Sullivan (Austin Stowell), who have been chosen by the mystifying Mr. Rourke (Michael Pena) to live out their fantasies. Taking the concept of the ’70s and ’80s TV show of the same name and adding horror elements, the plot is almost too adventurous for its own good.
Mr. Roarke insists guests must endure their fantasy until it has come to its natural conclusion, regardless if the fantasy plays out as they expect. Predictably, the fantasies become nightmares, and the five vacationers must figure out how to get off the island.
The five foreseeably come together to defeat Mr. Rourke after encountering villains with guns, grenades, medical tools and soldiers, only to find out the real villain is one of them. Throughout the film’s premise, the only insight we get into a character’s real life problems and insecurities is through Olsen. Olsen believes she is not worthy of love or a family, due to making a mistake that she severely regrets in her past.
Although the concept of the film possesses a great amount of potential if it were to have a larger budget and have been directed by someone as talented as Christopher Nolan; uneventful action, useless zombie-monsters, shallow acting, an excessive number of storylines and boring plot twists intervene and conclusively give Fantasy Island no real shot at being remarkable.
