This very timely remake of an old TV show, The Addams Family, did not live up to its full potential due to a rushed ending and an unclear storyline. The movie reflected today’s society and molded to our current day and age shown through some of the jokes that were made and scenes that were shown.

The movie began with the Addams family settling in New Jersey shortly after the marriage of Gomez (Oscar Issac) and Morticia (Charlize Theron) Addams. They moved into an abandoned, creepy home on a hill looking over the new, uniformed town called Assimilation– very ironic. The leader of the Assimilation community, Margaux (Allison Janney), hosts a reality TV show about renovating houses to make them look the same and sees the Addams family’s house as her next goal, but there is great resistance from the Addams family; they don’t want to assimilate. However, she ends up not being the kind and sweet woman she is perceived as. 

Meanwhile, the Addams son, Pugsley (Finn Wolfhard), is being instructed to prepare for his Mazurka, his rite of passage into the family. The whole Addams extended family was coming over to watch Pugsley’s Mazurka. This really distracted from the plot that was already created in the movie. Another main event going on is the conflicts involving the daughter, Wednesday Addams (Chloe Grace Moretz), with her identity. She wanted to see what being a “normal” kid was like and venture away from her family. She befriended Margaux’s daughter and ended up changing her personality.

A scene that stood out to me was when Margaux’s daughter was walking into the Addams’ house, staring at her phone. The door was slammed in her face, and she gave no regard to what just happened; she just turned around and never looked up from her phone. That showed how are society is today and gave the movie a very moderntone.

As you can tell, there is way too much going on in the plot of this PG rated movie. Kids watching this would get confused easily as the movie kept switching amongst the multiple plots. The movie lost my attention at some points and had some basic, potty-humor in it. The overarching message that I took away was from Wednesday’s plot. She disregarded her mother’s rules about what she could and could not do and then convinced Margaux’s daughter to go against her mother’s rules as well. It’s a bad message to send across to young kids viewing the film.

The scenes in the film and the voiceovers were really done. There was a clear cut contrast between the Addams’ house and the Assimilation town. The Addams’ house was shown with all dark colors which gave it a creepy and gloomy tone. The town below their house had houses that mirrored each other and bright, welcoming colors. It was a “picture perfect” city which created a big contrast from the Addams’ house.

Overall, there was not a clear plot and poor messages were given off. The plot jumped from Wednesday’s problems to Pugsley’s Mazurka to Margaux’s reality TV show drama. Also, going against your family and parents, and having a person who is known as nice and a good person end up turning out to be a manipulator are not the messages that should be sent off to kids who are the main audience watching this film.