WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Finding 'Ohana, now streaming on Netflix.
Netflix's Finding 'Ohana focuses on Pili, her brother Ioane and their Hawaiian friends, Hana and Casper, as they all search for treasure in the Kualoa Mountain. It's a movie similar to things like The Goonies, Indiana Jones and National Treasure, as the group is hoping to find riches to pay off debts and attend expensive schools.
However, as much as they navigate death traps and dangerous terrain underground, the film suffers from a major villain problem, in that there are no real villains.
A big part of adventure movies is someone seeking the loot and chasing the pesky heroes down. It doesn't matter if it's a rivalry or villains being greedy, it typically fits the story because a straightforward search for treasure can get stale fast. Now, that's not to say Finding 'Ohana doesn't work, but it definitely loses some momentum without opposition.
Throughout the film, it's all about finding clues, which feels more like a board game than an adventure movie. After all, a hunt is a caper, so it's fair to assume there would be another force going after the prize. The movie even teases as much when it starts, with Pili beating out other kids in New York in a hunt to prove just how skilled she is.
Unfortunately, the rest of the movie doesn't show Pili's crew testing their intelligence when it comes to booby traps against anyone other than themselves, so they don't have to push themselves. Had there been other kids on the island hunting, it would have felt more exciting and paved the way for the twist where the island kids were actually trying to find the loot to protect it from desecration.
Sadly, the movie decides to end with the ghostly Nightmarchers that are quickly revealed to be protectors of the island that take back the treasure from the kids and forgive them. As a result, Pili's squad doesn't have to overcome much in their journey, which leaves the movie feeling like it's missing something.
Directed by Jude Weng, Finding 'Ohana stars Kea Peahu, Alex Aiono, Marc Evan Jackson, Lindsay Watson, Owen Vaccaro, Kelly Hu and Key Huy Quan. The film is now streaming on Netflix.