Decent film for its genre and intended audience

Rating: 5/10 (25 December 2015)

I've seen a lot about Elf, but I hadn't ever seen it before. I actually was expecting something slightly different from Elf. I haven't seen Will Ferrell, so I had some weird expectations. For some reason I thought Elf would be intended for adult audiences. Now, well, it's not simply for kids, but it is a film for the whole family, which means it has a lot of themes kids appreciate more than adults. By that I mean such typical holiday spirit that grows towards the end - and how adults in the film aren't interested in Xmas or their children and blah blah. Sure, that is unfortunately true, but it has been used so many times in films it's becoming boring.
Sure, Elf had some originality. The idea of an elf adjusting to human life is silly but interesting. Of course the theme of that idea has been explored over and over again, but adding the Xmas feeling to it makes it different from the typical theme.
The story goes on the same way every single comedy film seems to go. It is funny until the end where it's almost sad because something goes so badly wrong, but in the end everything is alright again! I saw that pattern even before I was half-way through the film.
But then again, it's a Xmas comedy film for the whole family. How could that be original? So when thinking of that, Elf was an alright film.