Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[innerSpaceman]

Spoiler:

Alex, as I understand it, in the book Neville becomes the titular "Legend" because he is the boogeyman of the new civilzation of albino, sun-allergic creatures that inherit the earth as the dominant species after the demise of 20th century homosapians. Supposedly, it's a neat twist that our hero is revealed to be the bad guy from the only perspective that counts once he's dead. Is that right?

In the film, he's not the last man alive. He gives a blood sample of his resistent plasma to a woman and boy he has hide in a crawl space from albino attackers, and then he is killed. There is no explanation why Neville himself could not hide in the crawl space, too ... and thus live to provide far more than a blood sample to science. But in the film, it's his blood sample that provides the cure, and thus He Is Legend.

Chernabog says "BAH"

[Alex]

Jesus Christ on a Crutch! They neutered the entire point of the book and the thing that makes it brilliant.

Now I'll definitely have to see it on DVD to judge if they replaced with something that still plays well (and only sounds stupid in comparison to the source). I've always said I don't see how a good faithful adaptation can be made since so much of the book is purely internal to the protagonist, but still, if you aren't going to keep that part, why adapt the book?

[innerSpaceman]

Since this is the third film adaptation to leave that out, that seemingly logical question seems nevertheless to be moot.

[Alex]

I haven't seen the other two but I understand that they so mucked with the story that they were only barely faithful to the book. I'd been lead to expect that other than broadly cosmetic changes this one was much more faithful.

Guess I was wrong.

[innerSpaceman]

It was a good movie till that final bit. Maybe when I rent it, I'll watch the first two-thirds, and then read the last third of the book.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Wait...

Spoiler:

He died in the movie?

Then it really broke from the screenplay we pitched on...

[Moonliner]

I just saw Legin tonight, I have to say the ending was rather abrupt. I wonder if we will one day see an extended DVD with an alternate, more faithful to the book, ending.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Oh, my. iSm's already recommended it, but I heartily agree. The Orphanage was a wonderful, wonderfully creepy film. Both Tom and I were tied up in tension, almost the whole time. I thought that the narrative structure, the echoing elements throughout, the whole screenplay in general, was really top-notch. I'll have to see how it weathers with me, but some of the imagery is definitely still with me today. It definitely is toe-to-toe with, for instance, The Others, but for atmospheric quality and tension, I would even compare it with Rosemary's Baby.

I'd pre-emptively made a personal top ten list of films of 2007 yesterday morning, but I'm having to reconsider it after seeing that last night.

[Gemini Cricket]

Juno.
I have to agree with a couple of critics and say it's one of the best films of the year.
I completely enjoyed it.
Wonderful soundtrack.
Ellen Page should be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar.
If you haven't seen it, you bloody should!


PS - There is a particular song from the film that is tattooed on my mind.

[flippyshark]

I admired The Orphanage quite a bit, particularly the lead performance. And it did have terrific atmosphere. However, the movie sadly contained one of the most odious of current horror movie cliches. I refer to

Spoiler:

the bus or truck that rushes in suddenly from screen left, taking out an unsuspecting, to say nothing of unobservant, character. The effect is not unlike a train squashing Wile E. Coyote. This shock-shtick is overused, and for me, unintentionally slapstick funny. So, in The Orphanage, I don't object to the plot point of a character being run over, just the hackneyed way in which it was presented. On the other hand, the best shock moment in the movie followed just a minute later.