Originality

I watched 'The Book of Eli' today (apparently Australia's kinda slow about certain movies) and I quite enjoyed the movie, which was why I was immensely surprised at the end where the words 'Based on the novel by so-and-so' were NOT shown during the credits.

It's not that I think sequels and print-to-screen adaptations are crap, (I'm still waiting for my Drizzt movie) it's just that every one in a while it's nice to have a breath of cinematic storytelling fresh air in a movie. I think the last original movie I watched was Avatar, which wasn't all that great either. And I refuse to believe that watching it in 3D would have enhanced my appreciation for it. And while some adaptations of literary works have been pretty awesome and extremely faithful to the original (Watchmen springs to mind), many have simply fallen short of the print version. And you can't say I shouldn't compare them because they are the SAME STORY. It has been ASKED to be compared to it's predecessor.

Worthy of some note are movies that take a basic storyline and characters, but decide to develop a semi-original plot. (The latest Batman series and the Marvel movies). Whether or not the plot is GOOD is an entirely different matter, as a fan of the latter example I found myself quite conflicted when I watched the Spider-Man and X-Men movies. One part of me was objectively thinking that these movies were pretty good and the other irrational fanboy part was screaming (OMG WHY IS TOBEY SO GAY WHY IS CYCLOPS SO EMO WHYDOESSHADOWCATHAVESOLITTLESCREENTIME) etc.

But really, original movies deserve the appreciation. In a day and time where any random collection of words can be turned into a movie (Julie and Julia, Da Vinci Code wtf) a plotline that can keep us on our toes is always worth following to the end. Sure there may be some inconsistencies and hiccups, but at least they have the excuse somewhat of having nothing much to fall back on. Adaptations have no such excuse.

I think the problem with movies adapted from print are the two primary kinds of people adapting them. (This rule can also be applied to sequels)Firstly, the corporate souless individual who couldn't believe how well the book sold and decided to make a movie out of it just to make more money. These guys have no real appreciation for how and what made the original so good (or in the Dan Brown's books cases, bad) and hence just produce a generic Hollywood film that fails to capture the essence and soul that was contained in that piece of literary work.

The second, and possibly worse, kind, are fanboys. Fanboys who believe that making a movie out of their favourite piece of work is the greatest justice they could ever do to the author and make a movie that is figuratively intended to suck the balls of every single other fan of the same author. In their movies you can almost see the drool oozing out of every scene. Shamayalan's The Last Airbender looks dangerously close to this kind of movie, but I'm praying to be proven wrong.

A good example of a successful print to screen adaptation would be everyone's favourite The Lord of the Rings. The success of Peter Jackson's trilogy didn't lie ENTIRELY in the EXPERT casting of Legolas, but more because the movie did not follow the book to the letter, but cut out only what was absolutely unnecessary and added dimensions and angles that Tolkien's writing simply couldn't bring out. Action scenes were far more dramatised, obviously, which was fine because the book was kinda dreary at times. Character development was consistent with the book, but brought out in a far more realistic fashion. (Hobbit homosexuality) But most importantly it kept true the THEMES of the book, which allowed the movie to be compared to the book and stand up because it stayed true to what the story was trying to tell. I could go on, and I'm not even a big fan of LOTR, which I suppose goes to show the level of appreciation I have for the adaptation.

I'm looking at the Coming Soon list and I can't say I'm looking forward to anything this year. Even Iron Man 2 just looks entertaining at best. I'm struggling to think now of the best original movie I've ever watched and I can't really say at the moment. It occurs to me that 95% of everything I've watched isn't original, which is sad, really.