"Diary of a Wimpy Kid" does not live up to its billing. "I'll be famous one day, but for now I'm stuck in middle school with a bunch of morons." And I loved the drawing: "me ->" and "morons ->". Unfortunately that's how it was watching the movie, here's me and a bunch of morons and before I turned off the movie, I felt like one of the morons.
The movie relies on the universal, and yet solitary, feeling, that we can be good and popular and accomplish everything we want to if only we weren't surrounded by a bunch of morons. I completely bought into their premise, but I couldn't buy into the main character. He was just too desperate, selfish, and annoying for the audience to care for him or relate to him. He basically deserved all of the horrible things that happened to him, and that was not fun viewing.
Despite the fact that it's not fun viewing and the main character is a self-absorbed pest, I can see its value for fans of the genre. The bullying scenarios are pretty accurate, the film has a great pace, and the acting is pretty good, especially by the main "wimpy kid". If you can get past your indifference or even hatred for the so-called "hero" then it is watchable.
But for me, the expectations for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" were too high, and just couldn't be reached.
