Treasure Island (2012)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Solid but uninspired movie which could have been profitably edited down by around 45 minutes. I can't remember the original plot too well anymore, but I believe that this production does seem to reflect some modern liberal political sensibilities, which likely weren't there originally--in and of itself, this is a legitimately different twist to put on things, except that it throws a few forced clunkers into the script. The performances by Izzard as a subdued Silver and Wood as Jim are pretty strong, but, Sutherland, as with all of his later movies, is just cashing a paycheck and does not at all seem invested in, or appropriate to, the role. Also, as a long-time small boat sailor, it kind of drove me nuts that they never raised more sail than they did--my guess is that this is not historically accurate, but instead reflected the limited budget of the movie, meaning that they didn't want to shell out for the cost of additional sails for the ship. If the movie was going to be dragged out to three hours, I personally wanted a lot more exciting sailing action. The production values are not quite up to that of a theater quality film, but compare favorably to those of a top-notch TV production. A perfect movie to watch with children if one wants to avoid sex and extreme violence, but for a modern adult audience, as long as liberties were going to be taken, it could maybe have been a bit grittier. Still, I can't say that I feel that I have wasted three hours or anything like that, and I'm not really significantly disappointed in any way at all, except for the dearth of sailing action.

I have never read the book and the last movie version I may have seen was over twenty years ago, honestly don't remember it much. This was mini series was very good I enjoyed it, Eddie Izzard gave an unexpected well rounded performance, many of the supporting roles are well played by this cast of mostly unknown English actors.There is a grittiness and sense of realism, unlike Pirates of the Caribbean which is played up for the Hollywood big screen epic.This moves along at a well managed pace drawing you in to the story and characters. Steve Barron is no stranger to the TV medium he is well adept at maximizing the small screen making you feel like your watching a big screen epic, best known for Merlin, Arabian Nights and the Adventures of Pinnochio he brings his distinct style to this tale and delivers Robert Louis Stevenson to a new era and generation. I think you will enjoy Treasure Island as I did.

I enjoy Izzard's comedy quite a bit, but I was surprised at the casting of him in this role. In a more traditional adaptation, he might not have fit, but this is a film that takes several liberties with the classic story, one of the biggest being the expansion of Silver's back story. Part of the continuing appeal of Silver is his shifting status between villain and anti hero. Between murderer and mentor. The film further blurs the lines by presenting much of it from his perspective. This, combined with a somewhat less savory interpretation of several of the protagonists creates an even stronger moral dilemma as Jim is forced to choose sides between what he has been brought up to believe is right, and what his present experiences have impressed upon him.The film takes fairly significant liberties to be sure, but welcome ones in my opinion. If this were the only film adaptation of the book, I'd hope for something more true to form. But the fact is that this book has been remade dozens of times, so it loses nothing by changing things up a bit in this particular adaptation. If you prefer the classic interpretation, there are any number of other films that will satisfy you. Personally, when a story is as well known as this, I'd rather the filmmakers try something different instead of retelling the exact same version for the hundredth time.I'm a little annoyed that several of the other reviews here apparently didn't bother to finish watching the entire thing. I can appreciate if you didn't care for this particular version, but reviewing a movie you've only watched half of seems ridiculous to me. Moreover, many of them were greatly misleading as a result. Livesy's supposed cowardice for example is merely a facet to a larger character arc that I found greatly fleshed what is often portrayed as a rather boring background character. If you want the classics, stick with Robert Newton. If you want a comedy, try the Muppet version. If you want a slightly darker, morally grey twist on a well known story, give this a shot.

Stevenson's Treasure Island was one of my favorite childhood books I used to read over and over again. Currently I can't remember its nuances - the plot of course I do - and I enjoyed the 2012 version. Background and costumes seems realistic and one can notice at once that it non-US movie - compared to Pirates of the Caribbean, for example.Izzard, Regbo, Sutherland and Wood are very good, the rest are just above average - or their characters are too "simple" to make some real shine out of them. On the other hand, it is good that no one really steals the show as Depp does when portraying Jack Sparrow. Fight scenes, collusions etc are also more "medieval" here.In short, highly recommended for those fond of historic adventures, and not seeking deep philosophy or reasoning.