The Fault in Our Stars
Today I FINALLY watched the movie The Fault in Our Stars. I was DYING to watch it, specially because I really enjoyed the book and I usually get annoyingly anxious when I finish reading a book and find out that there is a related movie. The DVD was released today and I got it as soon as I managed to, and I'm glad for managing to get the Extended Version of the movie. Unfortunately, for some weird reason it only works perfectly on a DVD player. If I try to play it on any computer, the movie fails right in the beginning until a certain part. I can still listen to the audio just fine, but end up losing a big chunk of the movie, which sucks.
I thought it would be interesting to make a couple of comments regarding the movie and overall thoughts about it. Do keep in mind that I will talk about the whole movie, meaning there will be several spoilers!
Also, I had a couple of problems with the screenshots for this movie. For some weird reason, I cannot manage to use the ALT+I shortcut to take screenshots, so I'm just PrtnScreening everything. Thus, the quality of the images will be quite crappy.
You see, this is why people usually download movies rather than buy the DVD.
Okay, so here we go.
So, my dear friends, The Fault in Our Stars. How can I even begin to say how much I liked it? Let's just say that after the first 10 minutes of the movie I was already shedding tears. No so much because of the scenes specifically, but because I had already read the book and knew all that was going to happen and was like "OH GOD, THIS PERSON DOES NOT DESERVE WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN".
First of all, can we just stop for a moment to admire the gorgeous Hazel Grace that is Shailene Woodley? Seeing her as Tris in Divergent even disappointed me a bit. In TFiOS she looks so genuine and in Divergent she's wearing so much makeup it doesn't even look like her. Besides, I LOVE her short hairstyle. For someone who doesn't plan on keeping a short haircut, doing this must indeed be a really difficult thing to do. Kudos to that.
Ansel Elgort was also an AMAZING Augustus Waters. Too bad that I couldn't take a screenshot of him or his awesome room with the tons of gaming stuff and the beautiful Shepard poster, because the DVD starts doing something funky like this:
*sigh*
Thank goodness it works on the DVD player, but I guess I'll have to send another e-mail to Fox.
It was actually kinda funny that by then I was already shedding a couple of tears for Gus' fate, but then I was laughing at the same time because I had forgotten how hilarious the driving scene was. In fact, that was my behavior for most of the movie: I was usually shedding tears, but then something kinda funny happened and then I was crying and laughing at the same time.
...when I think about it, it was actually kinda pathetic. But hey, this is why I always love to watch movies by myself for the first time.
Aw, man, too bad the video's quality is awful when Isaac shows up in Gus' house. I wanted to take a screenshot of him playing Titanfall. Also, kudos to Josh Boone because of all the gaming references.
This is one of the parts of the movie's trailer that made me cry, and I found it unfortunate that they removed the part where Hazel's mom puts her hands in her head in complete desperation, because that was the perfect representation of a parent's helplessness.
John Green's apparition in the movie apparently was an extra for the Extended Version of the movie, and I thought it was kinda sad that they cut out this part, because for me, this is the first sign that something MIGHT have been happening with Gus (he goes out to pick a snack before the flight, takes WAAAAY too much time to get back and when he does, he is absolutely exhausted. It doesn't look like something important, maybe he did get a giant line and got stuck, but if you pay attention to the flow of the book, you'll notice that this is the first in too many cases like this). The signals get more evident as the book goes, but the movie doesn't really show this so well for people who are watching to figure that out.
One thing that has been changed and I did like was the fact that some of the things I didn't enjoy THAT much in the book were removed, and the fact that this scene with John Green and the little girl happened in the airport rather than the mall was actually a good thing for me, because I wasn't a big fan of the mall scene.
The scene in which Gus declares his love for Hazel is also absolutely adorable. In fact, hell, their entire relationship is a beautiful thing. I wish romance books were as objective as this one, and I also wish romance movies were as objective as this one.
Willem Dafoe as Peter Van Houten actually struck me as a surprise in the movie. I didn't notice his name before in the cast, but when it showed up in the credits, I immediatelly knew he was playing Van Houten. And I have to say, it was a good choice. I imagined Van Houten more like the actor that played Haymitch in the Hunger Games, but Dafoe worked up pretty well in the movie. As for Lidweig (I forgot how to write her name), I imagined her more like Bernadette from the Big Bang Theory. Too bad that her participation ended up not being as significant as it was in the book.
The part that followed this one, the scene in Anne Frank's house was also not as impacting as it was in the book, because it's there that it became pretty evident (at least for me) that Gus still had cancer. In the movie, climbing up all those stairs didn't seem like such a problem for him, and it bothered me a little.
Oh, man this part of the movie was difficult to watch. By then, when they sat in the bench, I was sobbing grossly to the point that I could barely breathe.
This is the second part that made me sob grossly, and once again I have to say that Ansel was, like, MAGNIFICENT in this part of the movie. I remember going through this part of the book like "oh gods no he can't die like, NOW", but I didn't get to cry. But in the movie... augh... All the feels. It was awfully devastating seeing that optimistic, energetic boy that always cracked a smile when you looked at him now desperate for not being able to do anything without needing the help for doing even simple things.
Good lords, how sad can a movie be??? Seriously.
This was actually a part of the movie I didn't enjoy as much as I did in the book, and maybe it was exactly because me and my friend made a podcast about the book and we talked a LOT about the conversation Hazel and her father had right after Gus died. That small conversation showed so much of her father's character that it was kinda sinful that the whole dialogue was not included in the movie.
I have just noticed that I didn't put any screenshots of Isaac. He was a pretty awesome character... that didn't show up so many times in the movie as he did in the book.
Another thing I missed in the book was the citation that explained the book/movie's name. Or maybe it showed up in one of those moments in which I couldn't read what was in the screen because I was having lunch.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed the movie and it's already in the first place of my Top 10 movies of the year (not that I watched too many movies anyway). I'm surprised that some people who read the book before watching the movie did NOT cry with the movie. Maybe I'm becoming too soft, haha.
I thought it would be interesting to make a couple of comments regarding the movie and overall thoughts about it. Do keep in mind that I will talk about the whole movie, meaning there will be several spoilers!
Also, I had a couple of problems with the screenshots for this movie. For some weird reason, I cannot manage to use the ALT+I shortcut to take screenshots, so I'm just PrtnScreening everything. Thus, the quality of the images will be quite crappy.
You see, this is why people usually download movies rather than buy the DVD.
Okay, so here we go.
So, my dear friends, The Fault in Our Stars. How can I even begin to say how much I liked it? Let's just say that after the first 10 minutes of the movie I was already shedding tears. No so much because of the scenes specifically, but because I had already read the book and knew all that was going to happen and was like "OH GOD, THIS PERSON DOES NOT DESERVE WHAT'S ABOUT TO HAPPEN".
First of all, can we just stop for a moment to admire the gorgeous Hazel Grace that is Shailene Woodley? Seeing her as Tris in Divergent even disappointed me a bit. In TFiOS she looks so genuine and in Divergent she's wearing so much makeup it doesn't even look like her. Besides, I LOVE her short hairstyle. For someone who doesn't plan on keeping a short haircut, doing this must indeed be a really difficult thing to do. Kudos to that.
Ansel Elgort was also an AMAZING Augustus Waters. Too bad that I couldn't take a screenshot of him or his awesome room with the tons of gaming stuff and the beautiful Shepard poster, because the DVD starts doing something funky like this:
*sigh*
Thank goodness it works on the DVD player, but I guess I'll have to send another e-mail to Fox.
It was actually kinda funny that by then I was already shedding a couple of tears for Gus' fate, but then I was laughing at the same time because I had forgotten how hilarious the driving scene was. In fact, that was my behavior for most of the movie: I was usually shedding tears, but then something kinda funny happened and then I was crying and laughing at the same time.
...when I think about it, it was actually kinda pathetic. But hey, this is why I always love to watch movies by myself for the first time.
Aw, man, too bad the video's quality is awful when Isaac shows up in Gus' house. I wanted to take a screenshot of him playing Titanfall. Also, kudos to Josh Boone because of all the gaming references.
This is one of the parts of the movie's trailer that made me cry, and I found it unfortunate that they removed the part where Hazel's mom puts her hands in her head in complete desperation, because that was the perfect representation of a parent's helplessness.
John Green's apparition in the movie apparently was an extra for the Extended Version of the movie, and I thought it was kinda sad that they cut out this part, because for me, this is the first sign that something MIGHT have been happening with Gus (he goes out to pick a snack before the flight, takes WAAAAY too much time to get back and when he does, he is absolutely exhausted. It doesn't look like something important, maybe he did get a giant line and got stuck, but if you pay attention to the flow of the book, you'll notice that this is the first in too many cases like this). The signals get more evident as the book goes, but the movie doesn't really show this so well for people who are watching to figure that out.
One thing that has been changed and I did like was the fact that some of the things I didn't enjoy THAT much in the book were removed, and the fact that this scene with John Green and the little girl happened in the airport rather than the mall was actually a good thing for me, because I wasn't a big fan of the mall scene.
The scene in which Gus declares his love for Hazel is also absolutely adorable. In fact, hell, their entire relationship is a beautiful thing. I wish romance books were as objective as this one, and I also wish romance movies were as objective as this one.
Willem Dafoe as Peter Van Houten actually struck me as a surprise in the movie. I didn't notice his name before in the cast, but when it showed up in the credits, I immediatelly knew he was playing Van Houten. And I have to say, it was a good choice. I imagined Van Houten more like the actor that played Haymitch in the Hunger Games, but Dafoe worked up pretty well in the movie. As for Lidweig (I forgot how to write her name), I imagined her more like Bernadette from the Big Bang Theory. Too bad that her participation ended up not being as significant as it was in the book.
The part that followed this one, the scene in Anne Frank's house was also not as impacting as it was in the book, because it's there that it became pretty evident (at least for me) that Gus still had cancer. In the movie, climbing up all those stairs didn't seem like such a problem for him, and it bothered me a little.
Oh, man this part of the movie was difficult to watch. By then, when they sat in the bench, I was sobbing grossly to the point that I could barely breathe.
This is the second part that made me sob grossly, and once again I have to say that Ansel was, like, MAGNIFICENT in this part of the movie. I remember going through this part of the book like "oh gods no he can't die like, NOW", but I didn't get to cry. But in the movie... augh... All the feels. It was awfully devastating seeing that optimistic, energetic boy that always cracked a smile when you looked at him now desperate for not being able to do anything without needing the help for doing even simple things.
Good lords, how sad can a movie be??? Seriously.
This was actually a part of the movie I didn't enjoy as much as I did in the book, and maybe it was exactly because me and my friend made a podcast about the book and we talked a LOT about the conversation Hazel and her father had right after Gus died. That small conversation showed so much of her father's character that it was kinda sinful that the whole dialogue was not included in the movie.
I have just noticed that I didn't put any screenshots of Isaac. He was a pretty awesome character... that didn't show up so many times in the movie as he did in the book.
Another thing I missed in the book was the citation that explained the book/movie's name. Or maybe it showed up in one of those moments in which I couldn't read what was in the screen because I was having lunch.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed the movie and it's already in the first place of my Top 10 movies of the year (not that I watched too many movies anyway). I'm surprised that some people who read the book before watching the movie did NOT cry with the movie. Maybe I'm becoming too soft, haha.