cdclndc

Ars Legatus Legionis
13,365
Subscriptor++
Don't hold back now, tell us how you really feel.

Seriously though, I can't tell if you didn't like the translation of the book to screen, or if the horrors that film contained damaged you emotionally. Both are valid answers...
Oh, it was the translation of the book to screen, or rather the lack thereof. They only covered the first half of the book, and even then they completely closed off the first half with a false ending made up out of whole cloth.

You see, it's like this. I was an impressionable kid back then who loved to read. I was at that age where I was transitioning into more complicated young adult/fantasy style books if I recall. Anyway, my dad bought me a copy of The Neverending Story. It was a big book by my standards at the time. And once more, it was outwardly beautiful, but the real beauty came in reading it.

And even the beauty in reading it was on two levels. On one level, as I recall it was a wonderful and compelling story. I only read it maybe once as a kid and never read it again. I suppose somewhere deep inside I want to hold on to that memory, and I have almost forty years later. It is one of the few memories I have as a kid where I can recall that childlike sense of wonderment we all had growing up. It is still an unspoiled beautiful memory of young me curled up in bed enthralled and totally captivated by the written word.

On the second level, my hardcover copy of the book was written in both green and red ink. One color representing the real world, and the other representing Fantastica. It was such a different way to jump between worlds. I had never seen a book written in two different colored inks at the time, and I have never seen another like it since. The dichotomy of print on the pages, the colors changes that occurred as worlds shifted, or as realities blended. It really combined a beautiful visual aesthetics along with the kaleidoscope of imagined worlds in my head.

And as stated, the movie only addressed the first half of the book. I think I might have seen part of the second movie, maybe a couple minutes, enough possibly to throw up in my mouth a little.

SO WHY DO YOU ASK? Why do I hate this F'ING movie so much? Because this is where I learned you NEVER, EVER, EVER, see a movie about a book you love and cherish.

I was just a kid back then. Just a young and impressionable kid. I went to that theater to go see the film version of my favorite book!! I was stoked as all hell! None of my friends had read this Magnum Opus! They had NO idea of the worlds this work of wonder would open for them. I was all in, it was like there was an open bathroom and I finally had my Orphan Annie secret decoder ring. Man, was I excited.

Then I watched the move......

.... and everything I loved was ripped asunder. They murdered the book like they murdered my childhood. I was in disbelief. How could someone do this? Ralphie's 'Son of a Bitch' was too light a phrase to describe my disappointment. This was my first introduction to the fact that movies made about a book can go way south of your personal expectations if you had read the book prior. It could be a damn shame if you had liked the book and they blew the movie. But as a kid, when they destroy something you love, it hits like your first real gut punch. The kind that really knocks the wind out of you, we tend to remember that first real hit. I was devastated then.

I'm pissed off now for them fucking over that kid who so enjoyed the memories of that book. And I'm doubly pissed now for still being pissed about the whole fucking affair. I'm sure somewhere there is a third meta layer of piss-offatude somewhere I'm missing, but when I find it, I'm going to say fuck off to the movie once more. There might be a meta meta layer as well, and I plan to hire Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog handle that one. That's what forty years of anger gets you.

Where's the aspirin?
 

MichaelC

Ars Legatus Legionis
30,347
Subscriptor++
Oh, it was the translation of the book to screen, or rather the lack thereof. They only covered the first half of the book, and even then they completely closed off the first half with a false ending made up out of whole cloth.

You see, it's like this. I was an impressionable kid back then who loved to read. I was at that age where I was transitioning into more complicated young adult/fantasy style books if I recall. Anyway, my dad bought me a copy of The Neverending Story. It was a big book by my standards at the time. And once more, it was outwardly beautiful, but the real beauty came in reading it.

And even the beauty in reading it was on two levels. On one level, as I recall it was a wonderful and compelling story. I only read it maybe once as a kid and never read it again. I suppose somewhere deep inside I want to hold on to that memory, and I have almost forty years later. It is one of the few memories I have as a kid where I can recall that childlike sense of wonderment we all had growing up. It is still an unspoiled beautiful memory of young me curled up in bed enthralled and totally captivated by the written word.

On the second level, my hardcover copy of the book was written in both green and red ink. One color representing the real world, and the other representing Fantastica. It was such a different way to jump between worlds. I had never seen a book written in two different colored inks at the time, and I have never seen another like it since. The dichotomy of print on the pages, the colors changes that occurred as worlds shifted, or as realities blended. It really combined a beautiful visual aesthetics along with the kaleidoscope of imagined worlds in my head.

And as stated, the movie only addressed the first half of the book. I think I might have seen part of the second movie, maybe a couple minutes, enough possibly to throw up in my mouth a little.

SO WHY DO YOU ASK? Why do I hate this F'ING movie so much? Because this is where I learned you NEVER, EVER, EVER, see a movie about a book you love and cherish.

I was just a kid back then. Just a young and impressionable kid. I went to that theater to go see the film version of my favorite book!! I was stoked as all hell! None of my friends had read this Magnum Opus! They had NO idea of the worlds this work of wonder would open for them. I was all in, it was like there was an open bathroom and I finally had my Orphan Annie secret decoder ring. Man, was I excited.

Then I watched the move......

.... and everything I loved was ripped asunder. They murdered the book like they murdered my childhood. I was in disbelief. How could someone do this? Ralphie's 'Son of a Bitch' was too light a phrase to describe my disappointment. This was my first introduction to the fact that movies made about a book can go way south of your personal expectations if you had read the book prior. It could be a damn shame if you had liked the book and they blew the movie. But as a kid, when they destroy something you love, it hits like your first real gut punch. The kind that really knocks the wind out of you, we tend to remember that first real hit. I was devastated then.

I'm pissed off now for them fucking over that kid who so enjoyed the memories of that book. And I'm doubly pissed now for still being pissed about the whole fucking affair. I'm sure somewhere there is a third meta layer of piss-offatude somewhere I'm missing, but when I find it, I'm going to say fuck off to the movie once more. There might be a meta meta layer as well, and I plan to hire Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog handle that one. That's what forty years of anger gets you.

Where's the aspirin?
It was a book first?!?
 

ahunter

Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
133
Subscriptor++
It was a book first?!?
Oh gods, see also: Total Recall, Jurassic Park, Love Death & Robots, Blade Runner, so many others: nobody ever knows there was a book and it was better. (Love, Death and Robots especially: not so much because they're bad adaptations but they really should have given more emphasis to their source material, it's just plain annoying to see people wanting more Sonnie's Edge or Bad Travelling when the Night's Dawn and Polity series are so epically huge)

... also Inception annoys me. Because it was inspired by Paprika, and once again it barely acknowledges its inspiration.

I don't see much animation in here so I'm going to throw out Spirited Away and Song of the Sea as 'perfect'. There's something about The Fifth Element too... and Sneakers (which I think is the only film where the central McGuffin is a quantum computer and nobody says the word 'quantum' even once)
 
I’ve given this some more thought. Some more candidates for the academy’s thread’s consideration that I don’t think have been mentioned.

Children of Men. The editing in particular, but it is certainly an excellent amalgam of all its parts. Casting, writing-as-adaptation, cinematography, editing, sound. Good stuff.

Nimona. Because it made me smile, almost end to end.

Tombstone. For the same reasons as Children of Men. In this case, the highlight? The casting is spectacular.

1917
. For (nearly) perfectly encapsulating a specific moment in one if the most horrific times in the history of humanity.
 

Hound of Cullen

Ars Legatus Legionis
24,826
Subscriptor++
Tombstone. For the same reasons as Children of Men. In this case, the highlight? The casting is spectacular.
The only issue I have with Tombstone's casting is Dana Delaney. I like Dana Delaney, but she is not a period actress. Her hairstyle and her mannerisms are so 1990s that it is distracting.

And I feel bad, because she's, like, the only woman in the film with any significant screen time, so I don't like negging her. But she doesn't fit in the world and it bothers me.
 

Scifigod

Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
6,976
Subscriptor++
I’ve given this some more thought. Some more candidates for the academy’s thread’s consideration that I don’t think have been mentioned.

Children of Men. The editing in particular, but it is certainly an excellent amalgam of all its parts. Casting, writing-as-adaptation, cinematography, editing, sound. Good stuff.

Nimona. Because it made me smile, almost end to end.

Tombstone. For the same reasons as Children of Men. In this case, the highlight? The casting is spectacular.

1917
. For (nearly) perfectly encapsulating a specific moment in one if the most horrific times in the history of humanity.
Good call on Nimona, shame that didn't win best animated.
 

JimCampbell

Ars Tribunus Militum
2,412
Subscriptor
Brought to mind by a conversation elsewhere: For A Few Dollars More.

For my money, the best of the ‘No Name’ westerns.* The cinematography is beautiful, the score is magnificent, the climactic showdown has never been bettered, and then it ends with a really good joke.

*And don’t get me wrong — I bloody love the others, but I think this one gets overlooked as the middle of a trilogy. It’s better paced than either of the others and I have no idea why the score isn’t as well-regarded as The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.
 
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MichaelC

Ars Legatus Legionis
30,347
Subscriptor++
I'm going to be honest, I never thought The Matrix had it either. There are several other more interesting (to me admittedly) ways that story could have played out. On top of that, it was the promise of some interesting ideas on which they never followed through. It was all flash, no substance. And Keanu was all wrong for the role.

you all may now bring out the tar and feathers.
 
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garrobon

Ars Praetorian
466
Subscriptor++
I'm going to be honest, I never thought The Matrix had it either. There are several other more interesting (to me admittedly) ways that story could have played out. On top of that, it was the promise of some interesting ideas on which they never followed through. It was all flash, no substance. And Keanu was all wrong for the role.

you all may now bring out the tar and feathers.
I don‘t really have any problems with the first movie. It wasn’t trying to be completely logical, and I thought they did a good job with a standard hero’s journey kind of story. The world they created was convincing enough for me to enjoy it. I’m sure it could have been better, but it left an impression the first time I saw it.