I feel betrayed by the world....
After Matt gave me the news on this I just had to investigate it myself, and I feel so betrayed. I read the books first when I was very little, and I still have them now, but the film of The Dark is Rising looks so awful.... For those interested see here for the official site and here for a review. It's not just that they've changed bits of the storey - that I understand to make things more suited for film - for instance I loved the LoTR adaptions, Narnia and the Harry Potter ones (here's hoping that they make the next film more interesting than the book...). No, it's not just that they've changed parts of it - it's that they chanbged everything about it... The lead is supposed to be 11, and from an old english family on a farm in Buckinghamshire. In the film he's 14, and an American living in England. One bags the question - if they're happy to have it set in England, why change the lead to American? The storey is completely interwoven with Arthurian ledgends and pre-christian myths, however, they've taken all the Arthurian bits out of the films - how this can possibly be considered to be the same storey without Arthur is beyond me.
One of the things I loved about the books was the magic - yes, the old ones had immense magical powers, but they were hardly ever used. It was perfect to me - the magic was ever-present, but used only when absolutely neccersary and only as much as was needed to succeed. It was more about the discovery of who the main character was, what part he had to play and how he was to play it - yes, he saved the world from the Dark, but he did it by thinking not by fighting. It was also about the difference bewteen the Dark and the Light, and why people choose one or the other, and how even the most ordinary of people, with no special gifts at all, were as important as the greatest Old One. How this is going to reconcile with the movie, whereby Will is given the powers of telekineses, fire starting and incredible strength (INCREDIBLE STRENGTH?!?!?!?) is something which is beyond me. Also, the prospect of actual fights (Miss Greythorne apparently wields a sword cane!) fills me with dread - if they wanted a "Indiana Jones meets Harry Potter" film, why base it on this book? Can't they have just have come up with an idea themselves and used that as the basis instead of ruining a perfectly good novel by pretending this stoey is based on it? It sounds like there will more different in this film than there will be the same - why couldn't they have saved themselves having to pay royalties, changed the characters names and called the two sides Black and White instead of Light and Dark? They would never be sued for infringement of copyright as the actual storey is so different, and they wouldn't offend all the pople out there who love the book.
As some of you know, I've been disapointed in the past by film adaptions, but I would say that this particualr one hits me harder than either Constantine or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's even worse than Eragon. This is much larger betrayel of trust. While the film looks like it may be interesting if taken as itself and ignoring any claims to be based on the book, I don't know if I'll be able to go and watch it as it's already disapointed me so much.
One of the things I loved about the books was the magic - yes, the old ones had immense magical powers, but they were hardly ever used. It was perfect to me - the magic was ever-present, but used only when absolutely neccersary and only as much as was needed to succeed. It was more about the discovery of who the main character was, what part he had to play and how he was to play it - yes, he saved the world from the Dark, but he did it by thinking not by fighting. It was also about the difference bewteen the Dark and the Light, and why people choose one or the other, and how even the most ordinary of people, with no special gifts at all, were as important as the greatest Old One. How this is going to reconcile with the movie, whereby Will is given the powers of telekineses, fire starting and incredible strength (INCREDIBLE STRENGTH?!?!?!?) is something which is beyond me. Also, the prospect of actual fights (Miss Greythorne apparently wields a sword cane!) fills me with dread - if they wanted a "Indiana Jones meets Harry Potter" film, why base it on this book? Can't they have just have come up with an idea themselves and used that as the basis instead of ruining a perfectly good novel by pretending this stoey is based on it? It sounds like there will more different in this film than there will be the same - why couldn't they have saved themselves having to pay royalties, changed the characters names and called the two sides Black and White instead of Light and Dark? They would never be sued for infringement of copyright as the actual storey is so different, and they wouldn't offend all the pople out there who love the book.
As some of you know, I've been disapointed in the past by film adaptions, but I would say that this particualr one hits me harder than either Constantine or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's even worse than Eragon. This is much larger betrayel of trust. While the film looks like it may be interesting if taken as itself and ignoring any claims to be based on the book, I don't know if I'll be able to go and watch it as it's already disapointed me so much.