Movie Review: Goosebumps

Not going to lie, I expected Goosebumps to be very generic and annoying, but while parts of it was just that, I still found the movie to be somewhat entertaining. The story was obviously kept deliberately as simple as possible - maybe to make it perfectly watchable for the more younger kids - but the execution wasn't too cheeky or immature. It still had some semblance of depth and the silliness was brilliantly masked by the manic fun and high energy of the whole film. The pacing was a little inconsistent though, while the acting was mostly fine with Jack Black thankfully not being too obnoxious and the visual effects were actually not bad - I braced for something of a hot mess given the range of monsters, ghouls and whatnot. Ultimately, if you're in the mood for a switch-off-your-brain fantasy romp, then Goosebumps is not a terrible choice. 7