SyFy’s Treasure Island Review
Where can I start with SyFy’s Treasure Island Mini-Series/Movie-Event/Whaterver they want to call it? I guess I’ll start by saying I have always been a fan of the original book (by Robert Louis Stevenson), and the 1950 Disney Treasure Island movie. I even loved the 1986 Return to Treasure Island mini-series starring Brain Blessed as Long John Silver. So with SyFy’s recent record with their movies, I was very worried when the screener showed up on my doorstep. Although SyFy does usually do very well with their miniseries, which they have recently taken to calling Movie-Events, I was not that impressed with Neverland.ÂÂ
Let’s just say I was very impressed with Treasure Island. It looks like SyFy sparred not expense, the sets and costumes looked wonderful and Eddie Izzard was brilliant as Long John Silver. This was a very accurate telling of the original story.
The only thing I had issue with is very minor. There was this weird split second fast forward thing they would do when people were walking up the Admiral Benbow Inn. Like I said it is a very minor gripe. The rest of the movie is beautifully directed. I particularly liked the way they show Jim Hawkins remembering them sealing up his father’s coffin, with Jim looking at the table and seeing the ghostly images of the undertakers nailing the coffin shut.
Final Thoughts:
I do apologize for getting this out so late, I only received the screener a week before Treasure Island aired on May 5th, and it was a very busy week. This is one of the best versions of Treasure Island I have ever seen. Great Job SyFy, now please keep it up with the rest of your movies. If you can keep this kind of story and acting quality going, your movies would be top notch, and you could release them in theaters. I would easily give this movie 9 out of 10.
