I feel like I'm going crazy

all I've seen is post after post saying how much they love the movie and saying its 'for the fans' so all the critics just don't 'get it'. and I will preface this by saying that the movie certainly looked incredible. the animatronics were spot on and the visuals and atmosphere was amazing as always, so for that I can agree.

but I have been incredibly excited about this movie for over a year, I was so impressed at the ability of the writers of the first movie to tell an original story while still incorporating the iconic characters we all love. I adored the character focused narrative and the inclusion of Vanessa as an Afton and how it felt like an actual story with characters I can get to know and care about, rather than a jumbled mess of game references. and that said, I wanted to love this new movie so badly

but I just... can't. am I going crazy? am I missing something everyone else loves about it? to me it feels like we got the worst of both worlds, a complete departure from the rich backstory and trauma focused narrative through line of Vanessa and Mike that I was expecting from the trailer and first movie, and yet also a complete bastardisation of the game source material, leaving us with a convoluted mass of confusing story threads that are left to dangle, all encompassed with quite frankly, appallingly bad script writing and story decisions that makes me scratch my head with the absurdity of it all. what the hell happened? how did we get here from the first movie? from a deeply personal story about a guy losing his little brother and almost losing his little sister in his desperate attempt to claw back the past, to this fanservice slop?

I was so excited to see how they would explore Vanessa's trauma, in what I believed would be the same story driven manner in which they explored Mike's in movie one. instead we get one admittedly excellently shot flashback that is then never built upon. where was the continued wrestling with her past like we saw with Mike (we get one single dream flashback compared to the many we get with Mike). where were the subtle clues to her older brother being complicit in her trauma (if we're going to bite the bullet and include two Mikes). where was her agency, her drive, her character? it just felt like such a waste, like Vanessa was a poor facsimile of the woman we saw in the first movie, and Mike felt like he was being weirdly obtuse and cold towards her for no reason other than manufactured conflict. the Mike in movie one obsessed with reliving the past to get justice for his little brother? I feel like he wouldve understood her better than anyone, he would never have treated Vanessa like this

did they have a coherent script to begin with, that focused on Vanessa coming to terms with her trauma like in the trailer, and then change it to include all this fanservice that adds nothing and spoils what could've been a perfect follow on from movie one? did they axe a bunch of scenes so they could shove in all that weird Mike Afton and FazFest stuff that went ultimately nowhere and meant nothing? did they include more scenes with the withereds and the toys actually being a threat, and then swap it out for that bizarre robotics fair and parent murder spree plotline? the first two acts felt perfectly fine, I even didnt mind the huge changes with the Puppet lore. but act three was so terrible I found myself wondering why I had even cared so much, why I had been looking forward to this for so long, just to get... this?

as a mega fnaf fan myself and someone who loved the way the first movie distanced itself from the games to tell a new story, this movie feels like a complete and utter insult. I genuinely feel so betrayed by it. I wanted to love it so badly but I just cant. am I going crazy? am I not a real fan? I honestly cant see how this movie is 'for the fans'. why cant I see what everyone else can? am I alone in having loved the story and a character focused narrative of movie one?

sorry for the rant, I'm just trying to come to terms with my disappointment over something I was so excited for, after having loved the direction the first installment took. I'm sure I'll come to appreciate it more with time