| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
B- |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
B- |
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Where's the Sense of Magic?
by WilliamP (movies profile)
Jan 22, 2009
36
of
45 people found this review helpful
The book was bloody brilliant, and so when the release date of the movie was moved from 2008 to 2009, I became mortified; I wanted to see Fraser and the Gollum-guy put on a character fest in a movie packed with visual explosions and good screenplay. Backed with Cornelia Funke's book, what could go wrong?
Nothing could have, if they stuck to it. Instead of listening to the plot, it seems more as if they took only the idea - things coming alive from books - and used that as the movie's premise. Sure, bits and pieces of the original story shine through here and there, but a lot of plot has been altered. Mo keeps reading from books as means of diversion so he can escape and whatnot, Meg just enjoys the ride for a time. The only notable improvement between book and movie is Capricorns newly found liveliness.
Sure, houses fly around in twisters, ToTo appears, unicorns exist, and a bunch of other eye candy ensues--but of this colourful collection of visuals is just a ploy to make you forget that the book had none of this. The camera is unusually shaky for a fantasy adventure, the characters are rather flat, some of the 3-D effects are lackluster, and just overall, you can't help but feel a sort of resentment towards the director and crew. Not because they're necessarily a terrible crew, but because they're just not cut out to make fantasy films like this.
If your looking for any old fantasy romp, this is a nice if only OK one. It's not terrible by any means, but every and all person will have some sort of disappointment, whether it be "Wait, where are they now?" or, like me, "You turned a bloody brilliant book to mediocre rubbish!" |
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