The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

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What if your most wanted fantasy can come true? Will you be happy? Fantasy Island asks and answers.

Fantasy Island follows five strangers who were randomly selected as winners, and the prize is to have their most desired fantasy played out for them on the magical Fantasy Island. Melanie (Lucy Hale) wants to get revenge on her high school bully; Patrick (Austin Stowell) wants to become a soldier; Gwen (Maggie Q) wants to turn back time and change a decision; brothers Brax (Jimmy O. Yang) and JD (Ryan Hansen) want the ultimate party scene. The island is run by Mr. Roarke (Michael Pena), whose job is to grant each guest the one fantasy they desire, but, of course, nothing comes for free. Fantasies will not play out exactly how the guests expect them, yet they must complete the scenario to the end, no matter what.

The feature is based on a television show from the late 70s, which probably made more sense as the fantasies played out over a longer amount of time and the twists were more profound. To be fair, there is more than one point where the audience does not know where the plot is heading, and unfortunately, the reveal does not make sense.

Even though the turns of the plot, and the audience’s almost constant confusion, may mask the enormous holes of the plot, eventually they get so big and prominent that there’s nothing that the filmmakers can do can hide them. Even by the end of the movie, the audience is left with no satisfactory answers to many questions regarding some events and characters.

For the acting, Michael Pena’s performance was not convincing at all; stiff, rather than mysterious or intriguing, as his character was supposedly portrayed. Maggie Q gave a very charismatic and enthralling performance that was wasted on a feature with such a thin plot. Lucy Hale’s performance started strong, but after one of the film’s twists, her performance became implausible.

The beginning of Fantasy Island had potential, but the reveal was just messy, thin, and not worth it.