Entertainment Rundown
Saw Prince Caspian this weekend… Overall, pretty good movie, with plenty of action and adventure and good special effects. You may be disappointed if you’ve read and are a fan of the book, though. While it didn’t deviate drastically from the book, there were some liberties taken (such as a bit of a romance) and they choose to leave out quite a bit in order to throw in more battle scenes. What bugged me the most, though, was the wannabe Lord of the Rings aspects of the film - such as the Ent-like trees in the final battle. The big screen adaptation wasn’t close to the “movie” I had formed in my head while reading the book, but it was still an enjoyable movie. I’m really looking forward to the next movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Dawn Treader is my favorite book of the seven and could make a really great movie. It’s scheduled to hit the big screen in May 2010.
This is turning into quite a summer for movies. Ironman has been a blockbuster (haven’t seen it yet, but heard nothing but rave reviews about it), Indiana Jones is released this week (heard it’s awful, but I’ll see it anyway) and Get Smart is coming in June (looks hilarious). I was very surprised to see a trailer for Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring Brenden Fraser. This movie is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name, which is one of my top 10 favorite books. Fantastic read - be sure to check it out! The book has been adapted to the big screen before, almost fifty years ago, but the reason this version surprises is me is that it aired as a made-for-TV movie on SciFi ION earlier this year.
Last bit of entertainment news - Muppet Show Season 3 hits stores tomorrow!
On a side note, I added a few new pics to the gallery.
[Oops, new gallery pics were broken. They're fixed now.]
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May 20th, 2008 at 02:25:55
Saw Prince Caspian this weekend… totally agree with the “wannabe Lord of the Rings” comment. As far as I’m concerned the Narnia books are a horse of a different color entirely but maybe that’s just me… What I really missed was the subtle humor found in the books. The movie was so serious, and while one could consider the overall theme of the series to be “serious”, the books were so much less epic and so much more “real” that I couldn’t help a twinge of disappointment when I saw the movie. Of course, after seeing the first one it was pretty much what I expected and I’m not complaining. I’m sure to be at the next one although I’m expecting certain disappointment… but how could I miss it?
May 20th, 2008 at 07:42:50
Good point about the seriousness of the movies. You’re right that the movies miss the subtle humor and such from the books, which is hard to translate to the big screen anyway, but I do think they are intentionally trying to make the movies more epic than fits the series, like you said. I just hope the movies don’t determine kids from reading the books.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:20:57
You can’t forget the new Mummy movie coming out!!!!!
May 20th, 2008 at 21:49:31
Oh yes I can
May 20th, 2008 at 23:19:41
i know i am the first to complain when a piece of literature that i love is adapted to a movie and they deviate from the style or even change the story, but in all honesty, i think i would feel robbed if the movie were exactly like the book. thankfully, when i read a book i create the “movie” in my head. when i see the movie, however, i am still able to keep it completely separate from my mental movie as long as there are a few differences. it’s like having two different stories about the same thing and i think that’s great. some things in literature, if imitated on screen, would just not be as spectacular as they can be in your mind anyway. when movies are done well, they are like cliff’s notes mixed with historical fiction. when they are done poorly (and i refer to extreme deviations in comic book movies like x-men 3), it’s like the screen writer took one look at the literature, wiped his butt with it, and said “i’ll re-write history… and this time aliens helped the british win the civil war, all the while general custer was having an affair with hilary duff.”