From time to time I may feature a post a review of a book-to-movie nature. I promise this won’t happen too often.
Description:
I am a beast.
A beast!
Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright. I am a monster.
You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll, stay this way forever ruined unless I can break the spell.
Yes, the spell, the one the witch in my English class cast on me. Why did she turn me into a beast who hides by day and prowls by night? I'll tell you. I'll tell you how I used to be Kyle Kingsbury, the guy you wished you were, with money, perfect looks, and the perfect life. And then, I'll tell you how I became perfectly...beastly.
Thoughts:
I know that no book-to-movie transformation is perfect. They cannot be exactly the same. Cinema and literature are different..um, beasts.
I read Beastly because I saw previews for the movie. And, well, I like reading updates on fairy tales. Don’t you get tired of the Disney version, too? Anyway, I was very impressed with the book. Recommended it to all my friends. (Didn’t blog a review because I didn’t have my blog yet)
Now to the movie, which I watched last night, rented from the Redbox. (Going to the movies is SO expensive!) The writers/directors/whoever completely changed Hunter. There was minimal growth in the movie. Flinn’s Hunter was a beast, a hairy, mean, rude beast who had to grow and get past himself to find the love of Lindy. Oh, Lindy, how I loved you in the book. She was so, shallow in the movie as well. Glimpses of their origins could be seen in the movie, but not who I felt they were in the books. Which, to me, is a huge issue—the characters made the book awesome. Movie Hunter was, well, not beastly enough. Tattoos and some scarring, and he asks Lindy: “Pretty gruesome, huh?” I’d say to be a beast, not nearly gruesome enough.
The plot line. As I said, I understand things MUST be different in the movie (but I don’t really know why) from the book. The whoevers took a lot of liberty with the plot line. The amazingness of the novel, was whittled away into the shell of a teenage dramedy. Ugh. Sure, the central theme was there, finding love in spite of yourself, but the premise of the movie was so different. It bothered me, really bothered me, that he built the greenhouse for her in the movie. That’s NOT AT ALL the way it happened in the book. I felt as if they cheated me out of a great book-to-movie conversion, selling me some watered-down version of the story instead.
As a Book-To-Movie:
Book: 4.5 Stars: Pretty much awesome
Movie: 2 Stars: Watch the movie, then read the book for full effect of the awesomeness
As Stand-alones:
Book: 4.5 Stars: Still pretty much awesomeness
Movie: 4 Stars: Cute, teen love story
Many Adventures,
Richard
"I felt as if they cheated me out of a great book-to-movie conversion, selling me some watered-down version of the story instead."
ReplyDeleteYes!!
A friend handed me her movie tie-in covered paperback copy and told me I should read it, so I did. On the cover was the dark-haired Lindy and the tattoo & scarred beast. In the book, though, as best as I remember...the beast was hairy and the lovely Lindy had lighter hair...wasn't it red? I remember being bothered that the movie took those liberties in the casting. The movie was okay, but strayed from the characterization the author gave them. I thought the movie was entertaining but didn't do justice to the book as an adaptation.
~Asheley