Skip to main content

Wait for video. Better yet...read.

My previous declaration still stands firm: it's a bad idea to watch a movie made from a favorite book.

I won't bore you with a full-blown Twilight review (mostly because my blog readers don't fit the fan demographic). I will say that the movie was about what I expected...shallow, rushed, and devoid of the rich character development that made the Stephenie Meyer novel (and its three sequels) such a captivating read.

Yes, the actors are pretty. Yes, the special effects and on-location shots are impressive. And I have to give the movie folks kudos for sticking, for the most part, to the plot and important details from the book. But it all just felt like skimming the surface. Most secondary characters (basically anyone who wasn't Bella or Edward) became caricatures of their book versions because they barely had speaking parts or screen time.

The real problem stems from the fact that they had to turn a gripping, teenage-angst-filled, unique-take-on-a-traditional-vampire-romance, 544-page book into a 100-page screenplay.

Tim noted that this is the root of the book-to-movie evil. He reminded me that one of most successful movies made from a book, Brokeback Mountain, actually was adapted from a short story. Annie Proulx's original work was only 64 pages long. Start that short, and there's not much more to cut out or dumb down for a two-hour flick.

Anyway, I left the theater yesterday eager to read the Twilight series over again. It's a sure cure to big-screen disappointment.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Holy Separated-At-Birth, Batman!

Gary Oldman...meet Uncle Knit-Knots from Imagination Movers.

So, I Changed My Mind

More than four years ago, the blog and I parted ways. I needed a change. A whole lot happened in my world since then. I switched jobs a couple times. My kid went from an elementary school tween to a teenage high schooler. We built a new house and moved. Both my parents and my sister have passed. The world around me changed as well. Mass shootings, racism, the #metoo movement, a misogynistic bigoted narcissist in the White House ... go ahead, add to the list. Toss your woes into this dumpster fire we call 2019.  I appreciate my previous sentiment, that I was no longer wandering. But let's be honest, we're all trying to find our way through this mess. I decided to reboot the blog to give myself a creative outlet, a way to sort through the confusion and frustration and attempt to make sense of it all. I have a voice, and I'm not keen to silence it anymore. Guess what? I'm back, bitches.

In memoriam...

I remember the first time I heard the name "Les Anderson." A bunch of Wichita State University communication majors were sitting around on campus, talking about classes they planned to take. Several people warned me: watch out for Les Anderson. He was tough. He had a murderous grading scale. It was nearly impossible to get an A. They weren't kidding. But he wasn't tough just to be a tyrant. From his teaching sprang a fleet of incredible, successful journalists, writers, editors, broadcasters, public relations experts, advertisers, non-profit professionals...I could go on and on. Most importantly, he created a legion of people who wanted to make a difference in the world. The greatest gift Les gave to them all? He believed in them, cared about them for their own personal stories as well as the stories they told for class assignments or in the pages of his hometown newspaper. Les was my teacher. My boss. My mentor. My conscience. My champion. My friend. When I started c...