Thursday, April 18, 2013

book-movies that didn't quite hit the mark

Hey guys! In case you didn't get the memo, I'm hosting a giveaway this week to celebrate reaching 500 followers on Twitter! I'm giving away three awesome books that are coming out as movies in the next year!

In keeping with that theme, here are two book-movies that I think really missed the mark.

1. The Golden Compass

Let me just start out by saying that in general, I'm not  a fan of narration. At all. Especially when it doesn't do its job. At the beginning of the b=movie, there was narration trying to explain some of the elements of this fantasy world, but if I hadn't read the book I don't know if I wouldn't have understood it entirely. 

Also, they took plot elements in the book that were barely mentioned and made them huge, and vice versa. As I've said in the last couple posts, this isn't usually a problem for me, when it's done well. These changes were done clumsily, and they didn't entirely develop their plot points and characters that were different from the book.

And needless to say, it didn't fit the tone of the books at all. Even though there is a fantastical fantasy world, the His Dark Materials series is edgy and dark, especially the last two books. The movie didn't have that edge. Had it done better in the box office and they'd tried to make the sequels, they would have had a really hard time making them seem like they were from the same franchise.

2. A Series of Unfortunate Events

You gotta love Jim Carrey, but this movie was atrocious. I was so excited to go see it - I loved the books - but so disappointed in what I saw. 

They tried to combine the first three boks into one movie. Again, if this had been done well, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But it wasn't - it was sloppy, and the plot points didn't make sense. They tried to make an original story without changing any of the individual elements. Scenes didn't naturally progress - they were spliced together. 

Again, if the changes had been done well I wouldn't have had a problem. But they just threw scenes from the books together in a different order without making logical transitions, and it was truly awful.

What are some of your least favorite movies based on books?

♥tg

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