Boring - I was greatly disappointed

Rating: 2/10 (17 January 2004)

I respect Tim Burton's film wizardry: Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Beetlejuice, and even Planet of the Apes and Peewee's Big Adventure, are wonderful films on many levels. Unfortunately, Big Fish is not.
Story is the driver of most films. Some would say story drives all films, but I disagree -- it's possible to make a great film without much of a story -- witness Jarmusch's Dead Man, Kurosawa's Dreams. Without a story, a film needs one of two other things: interesting characters (as in Dead Man) or beautiful photography (as in Dreams).
Big Fish, however, has no story, or I should say none of any interest, and no interesting characters -- at least none that are explored in any depth. The one character who changes by film's end is the son, and, wow, he realizes that if his dad wants to tell stories, that's who he is, and that's okay. (Not a spoiler -- you know this is coming after the first scene.)
The photography is fine, and there are colorful sets, as well as some colorful, but flat, characters -- these aspects of the film allow me to give it a 2 out of 10.
I'm a Tim Burton fan, but this is not a good film. 'Nuff said.