The beginning of the film was just awful and unnecessarily!
The 1969 scene with the bullies was completely unnecessarily and they should've cut it from the film and just had Alan playing the game and ending up 26 years in the future. We didn't need to see him get beat up like that and they do absolutely nothing to resolve the bullying problem, so why even include that in the film? Filmmakers were so stupid back then, I guess. Thank God bullies are a rare breed in today's films! Other than that, the rest of the film is great and I hope if they ever remake this film, the bullies are cut from it.
This is what Doug Walker was talking about when he said that bullying is the worst cliche you'd probably ever see in films and TV shows. They are completely pointless, not funny, there's no backstory, and they contribute nothing to plot unless it's a movie like Back To The Future or The Karate Kid where they actually have a point to the film's overall plot like Marty telling his dad to stand up for himself or Danial Russo learning karate to fight back against a gang of viscous martial arts thugs that torment him everyday at school.
This film, however had no reason to add these bastards into the plot as they have nothing to do with a film about a board game coming to life with wild animals and Alan never stands up to these bullies in the film, unlike The Karate Kid. So it was all just a waste of time, money, and scriptwork to include these pricks in an otherwise great film! Oh well, at least filmmakers are listening to Doug about bullying being a huge problem films and shows!