disappointing, I really wanted to like this movie

Rating: 5/10 (10 July 2005)

I really thought I would like this movie, I usually like interesting stories about alienated characters, but this was just too sentimental.
The movie's number one problem: the characters are too clichÃ©. I know they wanted to go for a fairytale style story, but that doesn't mean the characters have to be 100% artificial. Couldn't they have done a bit more to minimize the feeling that we're watching mindless, one-dimensional caricatures simply existing for the sake of the movie? The characters have almost no depth at all. For example, why did Kim ever fall in love with Scissorhands? She never had a reason to, and the explanation given was not good enough. She went from almost being disgusted of him to... LOVING him? Not just being his friend, not finally accepting him for who he is, or even just his best friend, but loving him...romantically. That's completely absurd. She was initially disgusted by him, but it's after seeing him on TV and finding out that he would "do anything for her" that she begins loving him, I feel silly just typing that. I'll tell you why she fell in love, it's because the plot called for it.
In the end when Ed saves the kid from being hit by the van, that felt like a convenient scene to throw in to show Ed as a hero and to draw empathy, but it makes no sense at all. Why would The Dead Zone's Anthony Michael Hall keep driving full speed after seeing the boy in the street? Even if he was drunk he would've made some attempt to swerve after seeing his girlfriend's brother about to be hit, and you can't tell me he didn't see him. I honestly wanted to like this movie, it's sweet and lighthearted, but ultimately failed because there was too much in this movie that was contrived.