AllMovie

The disturbing classic novel by William Golding becomes this ravishingly photographed but somewhat dramatically tepid (at least by comparison to its literary source) adaptation. The performances are generally adequate, though one would have hoped for more, with only Danuel Pipoly a clear stand-out as the woeful Piggy (it should be noted in all fairness that his is the meatiest role, pun intended). What the film most seriously lacks is difficult to define. Perhaps it's the unwelcome emergence of the everyday, mundane quality of youthful violence that exists now but didn't upon the book's publication in 1954. Perhaps it's because the characters have been updated and Americanized that their transformation into savage brutes from modern-age TV and video game-addicted boys doesn't seem as radical a transformation as was that of properly trained and groomed, "civilized" British prep school students. Whatever the reason, Lord of the Flies (1990) has been proven so sadly prophetic that it no longer rings an alarmist bell, and that's just plain sad.