Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life Review

<p>Film adaptations of novels that have done really well are not something new&period; There are tons of movies that have gone down this road&comma; with the most recent and famous being <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;en&period;wikipedia&period;org&sol;wiki&sol;Harry&lowbar;Potter&lowbar;&lpar;film&lowbar;series&rpar;">the Harry Potter series<&sol;a>&comma; the Twilight series and the Bridget Jones’s Diary series&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So when a recent movie was adapted from the realistic fiction novel&comma; <em>Middle School&colon; The Worst Years of My Life<&sol;em> by James Patterson&comma; we expected great things from it as well&period; However&comma; the film that released on 7 October based on this novel of the same name received mixed or average reviews&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>The Plot<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The film and the novel revolve around the life of sixth-grader&comma; Rafael &&num;8220&semi;Rafe&&num;8221&semi; Khatchadorian who has just started at yet another middle school&comma; Hills Village Middle School &lpar;HVMS&rpar;&period; Rafe is known to get into trouble plenty of times and thus&comma; has been kicked out of many schools earlier&period; A few of his friends at HVMS are Leo the Silent&comma; Rafe’s imaginary and quiet friend who seems to get him into trouble all the time and Jeanne&comma; who tutors him&period; She is also Rafe’s first crush&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>The Characters<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another interesting character in the movie is the school’s principal&comma; Mr&period; Dwight&period; He has given every student a handbook that is filled with arbitrary rules that everyone has to follow&period; Another prominent character in the movie is Rafe’s younger sister&comma; Georgia&period; Like all younger siblings&comma; she also quarrels with her brother occasionally and is the family’s tattletale whenever she hears a secret&period; They also have to deal with their single mom’s two-faced boyfriend&comma; their soon-to-be stepfather&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>The Storyline<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As a new kid in school&comma; Rafe’s just beginning to adjust to his new school&period; But the teachers who are in charge of him are nasty&comma; and even worse than the bullies&period; So after Rafe and his friends can’t take it anymore&comma; they come up with an idea to humiliate the principal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In order to do that&comma; they invent <em>Operation R&period;A&period;F&period;E <&sol;em>or<em> Rules Aren<&sol;em><em>’<&sol;em><em>t For Everyone&period; <&sol;em>This massive insurrection means that they try to break every single rule listed in the student handbook&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This entertaining adaptation captures the spirit of the novel’s quirky main character who is on a quest to break silly and ridiculous rules&period; As a creative individual&comma; Rafe has whip-smart imagination and vivid drawings that seem to come to life around him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What We Liked&quest; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As mentioned earlier&comma; the movie has captured the essence and soul of each and every character realistically&period; As parents&comma; adults and maybe even younger viewers will be able to relate to the movie and the daily challenges that most middle schoolers encounter&period; Peer pressure&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;reference&period;com&sol;world-view&sol;social-hierarchy-edf7bcbdf5f934d0">social hierarchies<&sol;a>&comma; bullies&comma; rules and indifferent administrators&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some of the rules make sense&comma; but others seem quite silly to the point of being bizarre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What We Learnt from the Movie&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Well&comma; as addressed in the movie&comma; we can talk about the idea of breaking rules and when is it really okay to do so &&num;8211&semi; If we were in Rafe’s place&comma; how would we have handled things and what could have been done differently&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As viewers&comma; these are some of the questions to ponder about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>All in all&comma; we think this movie is a perfect fit for actual middle schoolers and tweens who would probably be able to relate to this movie in a better way&period; Younger kids may not really enjoy it unless they have older siblings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The light romance&comma; poignant plot point and the rebellion nature of this movie definitely makes it a one-time watch&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;