Winner of 8 Academy Awards, 7 Baftas and 4 Golden Globes, my expectations for Slumdog Millionaire were very high, but, unfortunately it wasn’t what i expected. Slumdog Millionaire is a Romantic drama film starring Dev Patel and Freida Pinto that really isn’t worth the 8 Academy Awards it got.

The story centers around d a young boy named Jamal and its opens with his winning of 10,000,000 rupees on a games-show one question away from the 20,000,000 jackpot. He is then caught by police who think he was cheating and make him explain how he knew the answers to all the questions. Jamal explains he knew them because of a series of events in his life. What we then get are many flashbacks of his child-hood life explaining how he knew the answers. These include, the now infamous, obtaining Bachchan’s autograph by jumping into a giant puddle of poo, the death of his mother during anti-muslim violence, becoming a child begger for a crime boss and meeting a girl named Lakita that him and his brother befriends. It then goes through many other flashbacks that are more recent with him searching for Latika who his brother ran off with. He finds Salim but he is informed Latika is gone. He then finds Latika but she is now wityh another man against her will and he promises to free her. After an unsuccessful rendeveux Jamal goes on the game-show to try and find her as she may be watching it. It then comes back to real life and he is allowed to return for the final question.

 The films acting is excellent and is one of the more positive aspects of the film. the childhood scenes actors are a letdown though as the child actors aren’t convincing and seem to just be saying lines off a card. The adult actors however are very good with Dev Patel being brilliant as Jamal with one scene where him and his brother are arguing on a rooftop shouting at each other being some of the best. Freida Pinto does a good job too as the damsel in distress and her emotions really show through her facial expressions. The soundtrack also adds great atmosphere to the movie as a hole with great rock for such scenes like when they are on the train getting bread and slow calming music for when Jamal finds Latika.

 The film all comes down to one word: Boring. Nothing ever happens that excites you or takes your interest. I very nearly fell asleep watching it as the best part of the movie was watching a boy jump in poo, that shows how boring it is. Also, it already says in all the trailers and on the information on the film that Jamal wins the game-show so it doesn’t build any suspense in the slightest when it reveals he does.  The third act is so cliched its embarrassing. Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl, there’s a bit where they meet but are separated, boy finds girl again and stays with her. You knew from the start the movie would have Jamal stay with her so once again it didn’t shock you when they did. Also the game-shows questions seems to be extraordinarily in order with his life as each question basically continues from where the last one left off, bad writing or just coincidence? Also the city of Mumbai seems awfully colourful with the people being seem so plucky and resourceful which completely ignores the mumbai bombings. The plot seems so close to the book Oliver twist its almost identical, with a young boy who is orphaned, has to pickpocket strangers to survive, both build up through there sh***y lives, both live happily ever after.

Overall, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that was to over-hyped. Its extremely boring plot which comes with cliches isn’t what i was expecting. It’s extreme lack of surprises is what really put it down as you can guess in the first ten minutes what’s gonna happen in the last twenty. I would recommend it to soppy woman who want a cheap love story that ends on a happy note like always but if you want something interesting then i would give it a miss.