Dear Readers,
This blog post
comes to you as a sample platter rather than a full course. I’ve decided to
discuss a little bit of everything, from The
Hunger Games to Abraham Lincoln:
Vampire Hunter, instead of focusing on one story this month. It’s good to
switch things up sometimes, no? But if you don’t like change, fear not. Next
month I’ll be back to singular in-depth reviewing.
The Vow (2/10/12)
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| imdb.com |
Based on the
true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, The
Vow is a love story about an amnesiac whose husband tries to remind her
she’s in love with him. It stars Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, named Paige
and Leo in the film. Paige and Leo have been married only ten weeks when they
get into a car crash that leaves Paige with no memory of the past few years of
her life. She doesn’t remember her husband Leo at all, much to his dismay.
Instead of wanting to rekindle their relationship, she becomes interested in
figuring out why she’s estranged from her family and what went wrong with her
ex-fiancé. Through incredible love and dedication, Leo persists in trying to
remind her of their life together. I won’t spoil the end, but it was a sweet
flick. However, I didn’t find it to be anything special.
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| getglue.com |
Looking at the
book, I see the same story but with different motivations. The movie takes many
liberties with the book such as leaving out the fact that Kim and Krickitt are
deeply religious. It was their Christian faith that motivated them to stay
together, which gives more meaning to the title The Vow. They took their marriage seriously. I understand wanting
to appeal to a broader audience, but I think it would have appealed to many
people anyway and might have been more interesting. Would it have been more or
less of a success if the film followed the book more closely? There was tons of
love and faith in the movie regardless, so maybe that dedication doesn’t need
to be labeled. But perhaps, done correctly, it could have elevated a formulaic
chick flick into an inspirational film. Who knows? If you’re interested, you
can read more about Kim and Krickitt here:
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/02/16/real-life-couple-from-vow-says-it-would-have-been-nice-to-see-christian/.
The Hunger Games (3/23/12)
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| wikipedia.org |
Suzanne Collins’
dystopian story about children fighting to the death in the government’s
disgusting games became a smash hit. Personally, The Hunger Games was my favorite book out of the trilogy. It had
some shock appeal, action along with strategy, and a pretty nifty cast of characters.
Tough-girl Katniss intrigued me because she was a survivor. She was a deadly
protagonist, at times manipulative, yet sweet as well. She volunteered to
basically die to protect her little sister. But she used golden-boy Peeta’s
affections to her advantage and was generally unkind to him until the end. It
makes sense in her situation – everyone is an enemy in the Hunger Games – but
it occasionally made her unsympathetic in my eyes. However, she must have made
the right choices because she remains alive in the end. What did you expect?
It’s a trilogy. This is only the beginning of her story. All in all, it was a
great book.
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| collider.com |
I quite enjoyed
the movie as well. I thought the actors were perfect and the sets were pretty
cool. I could feel the grit of District 12, the extravagance of the Capitol,
and the thrill of the arena. The movie followed the book pretty closely in my
opinion, though I thought that Katniss’ relationships with the two main boys
were not portrayed clearly. Gale is only shown in the beginning of the film and
in longing glances, not thoroughly conveying the bond he and Katniss share.
They’re as close as brother and sister, yet the potential for romance is
bubbling right beneath the surface. And in the film, she seems to genuinely
care for Peeta whereas the books show her thought process to be more
calculating. She needs him because the audience loves a good romance, and the
audience can keep her alive. It’s difficult to translate inner monologue into
film though. Despite that one criticism, I thought the film was a huge success.
And obviously the numbers agree with me: it’s made about $672,826,249 worldwide, to date.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (6/22/12)
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| screenrant.com |
Abraham
Lincoln is a vampire hunter? I really must not have paid attention in history
class. Seth Grahame-Smith, an Emerson alumnus, tells the tale of our 16th
president with a little more blood than the history books. There’s still a
Civil War of course, but it’s mostly because of vampires. Lincoln, trained by
his friend Henry, dutifully slays the vampires Henry tells him to. Then, he
takes matters into his own hands and decides to stop slavery. That’s not even
historically accurate without the vampires. Lincoln just wanted to preserve the
Union. But anyway… I feel like while the book was a fairly good story, the
movie didn’t live up to expectations.
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| wikipedia.org |
Quite
a few things are changed – I’m sad there’s no Edgar Allen Poe in the film, for
example. Notably, the movie also adds the character of Adam. Although it still
has its fair share of vampires, this change condenses the vampire enemy into a
single antagonist. After all, the audience probably wouldn’t have known the
vampires were the “bad guys” if not for Adam. They need easily identified
villains. I didn’t have much of an issue with his inclusion, but it is a
significant deviation from the book. Overall, I was disappointed. They all had
cool costumes and I enjoyed Henry and Lincoln, but there were some ridiculous
scenes. In one, he chases a vampire by jumping across the backs of wild horses
as they stampede. What is that about?! For some reason, I
still kind of enjoyed the film but I think it was because I found it funny. And
a lot of it was not supposed to be funny. Make of that what you will.
Furthermore, the film leaves out the end of the book. While Grahame-Smith sheds
light on events after Lincoln’s assassination, the movie ends with him leaving
for the theater on the day he is shot. I’m confused over whether I find this
film adaptation to be a success, but for now I think I’d recommend the book.
Written by Alex Kowal
