I want those 2+ hours back

Rating: Null/10 (30 December 2007)

When I first read Into the Wild, by Jon Krakauer, about two years ago, I started reading and found myself staying up until far past midnight, unable to put the book down, so enthralled was I with the story of an idiot boy who discarded his former life to travel to Alaska and ultimately die in the bush there. The book was a first class page turner, the type of thing you don't put down until you absolutely have to. I'm sorry to say, the movie was nothing like that. Perhaps it was the fact that I watched it while my eyes were already drooping from the exhaustion of the day, but to put it plainly, this movie was excruciatingly boring.
Basically, what you have is a bunch of clips of Chris McCandless' life, both prior to and during his ill fated Alaska adventure. Sean Penn tries desperately to make the audience feel something, and fails. Why not just present the kid's life and let the audience feel what they will? You can tell Penn thought highly of this lad, and in order to make the viewer share that opinion, included a bunch of scenes tailor-made for Chris to spout platitudes in. You know, deep stuff like "don't let your life pass you by". If you've watched the film, you know for yourself how many times he spoke variations on that theme. We see plenty of shots of Chris in the wilderness, lots of slow-mo scenes, and we're also introduced to a cast of supporting characters ranging from a sweet old man who offered to adopt him, to an underaged love interest. When I heard Chris tell the old man that he was just "sitting on his butt", I wanted to jump through the screen and punch the kid in the face for being such a pretentious little twit. There he is, some wet behind the ears rich kid, telling an old man who has lived a long life that he should go do something. It was enough to make me gag, but I can't blame Sean Penn for that one, because in real life Chris McCandless was an obnoxious jerk, who thought nothing of disappearing and leaving his parents, who were by no means perfect yet who loved him and did the best they could for him, and his sister, who idolized him, to wonder what happened to him.
I agree with the other reviewers who hated the grating voice-over which seemed to be a lazy substitute for actual storytelling. In the absence of a well thought out script, what else are you supposed to do, I suppose.
There will be those who love this film, I am sure. Every one is entitled to their opinion. For me, though, it was a poorly made, overly long movie about a kid who died in the bush because of his own stupidity and arrogance, a self indulgent piece by Sean Penn, who after this, should henceforth be required to stay in front of the camera.