Geistervilla

I was hoping they learned from mistakes they made with the last Haunted Mansion movie. The story was much better than I expected, but they executed it poorly. They tried too hard with their overly silly jokes, cheesy ghost visuals, and painfully obvious shout outs to the ride. They tried to cater their jokes to kids, but in a theater full of children and preteens, the only chuckles I heard came from their elderly grandparents. My seven year old even thought it was too cheesy and was hoping for it to be a little more scary. HM is my favorite ride at Disney but I hated their use of obvious references to cater to the fans. Especially their use of the ride's original script. That was unforgivable.

This is a frustrating one for me. I saw so many good ideas on display and committed performances from a game cast, but it all just felt kind of...wasted in the end.

And it's because it really felt like the cast and crew were working on a short leash. Everything about the narrative and visual presentation felt safe, sanitised, by-the-numbers, undercooked, and dull.

The film never gets silly enough to be memorable, even if it does get its share of decent laughs. And it also never gets scary or edgy enough to be memorable either.

There's no distinct style or vision here. It's like store-brand vanilla ice cream. There isn't even anything particularly wrong with it; it's just so bland that it's not going to be remembered for anything at all.

My friend who used to work at a movie theatre and who I hadn't seen in a while expressed interest in watching this one so I decided to oblige him on this point. I expected some laughs and innocent scares but while I was impressed with the visual effects, I didn't think there were many funny scenes or lines unless they were said by Danny DeVito. Still, I liked it fine most of the time and so did my friend. Nice to see all the familiar New Orleans landmarks since I and my friend only live a two-hour drive from there. This friend said he liked it better than the Eddie Murphy version which I've yet to watch. In summary, we both say give this Haunted Mansion a look. P. S. I personally thought it was a shame there was no scene of DeVito with his former "Taxi" co-star Marilu Henner who seemed wasted as a NO tourist.

Pacing is all off here, this film could have done with at least 20-30 minutes trimmed off. It sagged in the middle, can't really fault the actors here, they all did their bit. They were just dealing with a baggy script.. The effects were fine, the set was appropriately eerie and atmospheric. I would have liked to seen a bit more menace with the ghosts, gave them a bit more edge which would have avoided all the characters seen as safe and untouchable but still have the light hearted approach, along the lines of the Frighteners (directed by Peter Jackson). I know it's a 12a but the kids would have coped with it for sure.

I wasn't expecting Disney's "Haunted Mansion" film to be a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I was hoping it would be good entertainment, as the trailers seemed to make it look a bit more fun and authentic than some of Disney's other ride adaptations. It also has a talented cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, and Danny DeVito. Yet the film fell short of my expectations, simply because it is so generic and derivative that it fails to offer the viewer anything new. It's not simply that "Haunted Mansion" might be too scary for younger kids and too juvenile for older kids, as that would not be a problem if the movie was good or interesting--it's just that this film overall isn't very good or interesting, period.

The film follows a single mother and her son who move into the Haunted Mansion, which is in New Orleans. While the film tries to utilize the setting of New Orleans in some decently authentic ways, the rest of the plot and character development is so generic that they fail to make viewers more engaged in the setting. The film's attempts at both humor and scares fall flat, as the jokes are formulaic and corny while the attempts at more frightening moments fail to elicit any tension or suspense, and are quite repetitive and CGI-heavy. For a film that supposedly cost $160 million to make, the visual effects look very cheesy and artificial as well. At over two hours long, the film also runs for too long, especially given the plot has limited resolution or payoff in a way that would be directly satisfying for the audience. While the supporting cast (such as Wilson and DeVito) try their best with the material they have been given and sometimes give off charismatic and fun performances, the rest of the film does not work especially well. Not recommended. 5/10.