Re: A Wrinkle In Time ... next?

"Dr. Dave" <dtate@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> To me, the fundamental nature of the characters in the movie and book
> of TPB are essentially the same. Their motivations, character, and
> (for lack of a better phrase) personal style are pretty much unchanged.
> Their exact actions are different, but to the same ends. I'm the
> opposite of Wasp, in that the details of the plot are (with rare
> exceptions) no more important to me than the style of the characters
> and the storytelling.
>
> My impression is that the story is the same because the characters are
> the same, modulo inevitable differences between telling and showing --
> their *styles* are the same. So I'm happy, and like both, even where
> they differ. Whereas with LOTR, the plot is (usually) the same, but
> the characters acting it out are (to me) fundamentally different, and
> it grates constantly.

That was much my take as well. The gratingness is amplified by the
manner in which the characters differ--in almost every case, they differ
by being less noble than their counterparts in the books.

Aragorn, Merry, Pippin, Gimli, Faramir: all less noble. Treebeard...
don't get me started on Treebeard. The one real exception is Boromir.
I rather liked the take on Boromir, which seemed to me to tease out
elements of his character which were implicit in his presentation in the
book, but rarely explicit.

But worse, the changed characters make less logical sense at every step
and turn. Why would the Fellowship take Merry and Pippin, two clowns
who have never expressed any ability to do anything at all? How can
Treebeard be unaware of events happening on the very border of his
domain? These things grate in a way that the books do not.


> On reflection, I wonder if having seen the movie first (in the case of
> TPB) is important here. It's hard to say; usually the book
> on-which-was-based a film I like turns out to be bad (if not awful)[1].

For me, I'm fairly certain the order would have made little difference.

I'm not an obsessive fan of the books, although I do respect them
inordinately. And there are other cases of book-turned-film that I've
watched and enjoyed; the Harry Potter movies and "The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe" come to mind as recent examples.


> I tried to do that, really I did -- but then he'd have a bit in actual
> Sindarin, and carefully make Minas Tirith look just like its
> description in the book, and preserve a bit of minor dialogue
> word-for-word... and I'd get sucked back into thinking it was trying to
> be a film of the book, and get slapped down again 10 minutes later.

Yes. When so many of the little touches are so *right*, it only
underscores the deep wrongness at the greater level.

- Damien
.

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