It's difficult to squash all the intricacies of a 300+ page book into a two hour movie. I'm never envious of the poor soul who has to capture all of that in a script. You can't please everyone and rarely is the movie ever as good as the book.
Let's take a look at two of my favorite and recent successes:
1. Lord Of The Rings Trilogy- Peter Jackson did the impossible. He took a bazillion page Science Fiction Masterpiece and made it into a brilliant work of art. The characters were memorable, the story line was kept very true to the books, and Jackson fought the battle of traditional movie length...and won. This was the first movie I ever went to a midnight showing for and didn't regret staying up. I was mesmerized by the cinematography. I think Jackson broke through a lot of new territory in making this movie (the same can be said of James Cameron's Titanic) This is a guy who didn't sell out and thank goodness he didn't. If you mess up LOTR, the multitude of Tolkien fans will never forget or forgive you.
2. Harry Potter- If you've never taken the time to read a Harry Potter book, please climb out from under whatever rock you've been under and give it a go. J.K.Rowling is probably the most prolific and creative writer of current time. Her contribution to literature will live forever and that's something most writers never get to say. She's the female equivalent to Tolkien and, like him, her writing is universally appealing to all genders and ages. The Harry Potter movies were visually spectacular. It's unbelievably difficult to capture the essence of a House Elf or Hippogriff, but somehow they managed to do it in these movies. This entire, original, and magical world was played out and perfectly paced through 8 movies.
Here are two of my more disappointing movie experiences:
1. The Time Traveler's Wife was a major reading experience for me. I was surprised by how emotional I was after reading this book. For a week, I wandered aimlessly around. I looked for fanfic, I dreamed about it. I didn't want the story to end. I was captivated by the complex relationship between Clare and Henry.
When the movie came out, I was excited. There were definitely bonus points for staring Eric Bana, who was shirtless many times in The Other Boleyn Girl. Rachel McAdams was fine with me,too. When the big day came, I hopped over to the movie theater with some friends and ordered a Big Blue Alcoholic Drink, got out my tissue stash, and prepared to be swept off my feet and for poor Henry to tragically lose his own.
At first I thought,"What's in this drink?" because nothing was making sense. Major plot lines were missing and so were characters. Most importantly, they f'ed up the end! I took out my tissues and grieved over the butchering of a great book.
This movie was almost as bad as Niffeneger's follow up book, Her Fearful Symmetry.
This might be offensive to some of you.
I wasn't a super fan of Breaking Dawn. I felt like Stephenie Meyer jumped the shark, fell into a Mormon Baptismal Pool, and tried to give everyone a happy ending while the rest of us just wanted someone to die. We wanted a big fang fight, a stake through Aro's heart, and Rose should have sacrificed herself for the kid leaving readers fighting the irresistible urge to bombard a brooding, grieving Emmett with cookies and casserole dishes.
Despite my misgivings, I was determined to see this thing through. All the previous Twilight movies had a great soundtrack so the first thing that struck me was the utter campy-ness of the music. It gave the whole thing a B-movie feel, right from the beginning.
I felt sorry for Kristen Stewart, who's character already lacked depth, and was reduced even more in the wailing, writhing CGI Zombie Birth Scene. Edward's character just seemed inept. I kept expecting him to scurry off to a corner somewhere and numbly nibble at his steel fingernails with his diamond vampire teeth.
The one shining moment in this fiasco was the character of Charlie, Bella's father. He always adds those moments of comic relief. The relationship between Jacob and Rose was fun to watch and the wedding night scene wasn't terrible. You know, because having your partner break the headboard and leaving you black and blue whilst claiming your virginity is such an amazing experience. "Don't worry, Edward. I'm totally into the whole S&M thing! Let's do it again!"
Sadly, I have one more movie to sit through before I can officially put a fork in my Twilight movie experience.
