troy
watched troy this evening and less than halfway through the movie, i had to pause the movie and scramble for my copy of the iliad just to make sure i was right to be puzzled when menelaus was killed in the movie. unlike homer, the movie cast the trojans in a much more favourable light and made hector (eric bana *swoon*) out to be such a hero that achilles' (brad pitt) exploits and looks paled in comparison. wait, did i just say that someone else is better looking than brad pitt? hehe.
i see now why all these "based on" movies can be quite misleading ... especially when the chronology of events is altered or when certain scenes are blown up for dramatic effect. i read the LOTR and harry potter books only after watching the movies ... but after today, i can probably understand why some people who've read these books are not happy with how the movies turned out. when reading, everyone probably makes his/her own mental movie with sequences and scenes featuring characters that look like how he/she wants them to look. that's the fun of letting one's imagination run wild when reading ... and because everyone mentally directs/produces the book he/she reads in a different way, movies directed/produced by another person would hardly match up to our own preconceived notions of what a book-based movie should be like.
but then it's all a matter of perspective. and seeing things in a different light through another person's understanding can be enlightening. watching troy made me empathise with the trojans and blew a fresh breath of life into hector's character. paris (orlando bloom), however, was as wimpy and good-for-nothing (his looks didn't help) as i had imagined him to be ... so at least there was some common ground.
i see now why all these "based on" movies can be quite misleading ... especially when the chronology of events is altered or when certain scenes are blown up for dramatic effect. i read the LOTR and harry potter books only after watching the movies ... but after today, i can probably understand why some people who've read these books are not happy with how the movies turned out. when reading, everyone probably makes his/her own mental movie with sequences and scenes featuring characters that look like how he/she wants them to look. that's the fun of letting one's imagination run wild when reading ... and because everyone mentally directs/produces the book he/she reads in a different way, movies directed/produced by another person would hardly match up to our own preconceived notions of what a book-based movie should be like.
but then it's all a matter of perspective. and seeing things in a different light through another person's understanding can be enlightening. watching troy made me empathise with the trojans and blew a fresh breath of life into hector's character. paris (orlando bloom), however, was as wimpy and good-for-nothing (his looks didn't help) as i had imagined him to be ... so at least there was some common ground.