![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
So, I saw the movie. I've also read the comic book (at least, the "graphic novel" put out which comprises the first six (I believe) episodes).
The movie is good. But it's not the comic book. If you try to compare the two, trying to determine if the movie was true to the comic book, you find it isn't. Really, except for a few visual effects, and I suppose one could say the general idea and ambience of the thing, the movie has very little to do with the comic book.
As a genre movie, it's decent. There are a few places one needs to suspend disbelief (Nautilus goes _into_ the canals of Venice?), but it's not bad.
Although there are many physical changes from the comic books (vampire!Mina, cia!Sawyer, thin!Bond, etc.), I think the actual biggest change from the comic book is the change in the atmosphere. Although still visually the same dark, turn-of-the-century(-no-the-previous-one) place, the characters are very different. In the comic book, Nemo seems to be playing along as a matter of penance, or perhaps due to blackmail. In the movie, he has some vague sense of "I'm doing this to make the world a better place".
Jekell/Hyde is another big change -- in the comic book, Jekell in an inveterate coward -- a brave one, who struggles to remain calm, but still essentially not certain why he is doing this. Hyde is a lost cause as far as morality is concerned -- he couldn't care less about others. It the movie, Hyde is really a softy at heart, and Jekell comes to terms with him, after a fashion. Also, the two are the same mind, in many ways. In the comic, Jekell often has no idea what happened when he was Hyde.
Quartermain -- in the comic, a drug-addicted has-been. In the movie (I suppose drug addiction would be a bad influence to show the young kids), he's got himself together. (He also has a very Jenny Sparks-like ending)
And Ms. Harker (I forget if she's called that in the book as well) -- in the comic, she is the one that drives the whole expedition, with her sense of righteousness. In the movie, she's a follower -- and she actually seems to feel affection for others.
I think that these changes are the result of the need to take some of the bleak despair out of the story -- to put a sense that everyone is redeemable into the air.
Why do they do this?
Because they're playing to the American market (same reason they introduce Tom Sawyer), which likes happy stuff.
I'm not really an exception -- I think the comic is fantastic, but frankly -- I'd much rather be around Sean Connery's Quartermain, 'cause he's more positive.
I do think that the book's Ms. Harker is much cooler.
The movie is good. But it's not the comic book. If you try to compare the two, trying to determine if the movie was true to the comic book, you find it isn't. Really, except for a few visual effects, and I suppose one could say the general idea and ambience of the thing, the movie has very little to do with the comic book.
As a genre movie, it's decent. There are a few places one needs to suspend disbelief (Nautilus goes _into_ the canals of Venice?), but it's not bad.
Although there are many physical changes from the comic books (vampire!Mina, cia!Sawyer, thin!Bond, etc.), I think the actual biggest change from the comic book is the change in the atmosphere. Although still visually the same dark, turn-of-the-century(-no-the-previous-one) place, the characters are very different. In the comic book, Nemo seems to be playing along as a matter of penance, or perhaps due to blackmail. In the movie, he has some vague sense of "I'm doing this to make the world a better place".
Jekell/Hyde is another big change -- in the comic book, Jekell in an inveterate coward -- a brave one, who struggles to remain calm, but still essentially not certain why he is doing this. Hyde is a lost cause as far as morality is concerned -- he couldn't care less about others. It the movie, Hyde is really a softy at heart, and Jekell comes to terms with him, after a fashion. Also, the two are the same mind, in many ways. In the comic, Jekell often has no idea what happened when he was Hyde.
Quartermain -- in the comic, a drug-addicted has-been. In the movie (I suppose drug addiction would be a bad influence to show the young kids), he's got himself together. (He also has a very Jenny Sparks-like ending)
And Ms. Harker (I forget if she's called that in the book as well) -- in the comic, she is the one that drives the whole expedition, with her sense of righteousness. In the movie, she's a follower -- and she actually seems to feel affection for others.
I think that these changes are the result of the need to take some of the bleak despair out of the story -- to put a sense that everyone is redeemable into the air.
Why do they do this?
Because they're playing to the American market (same reason they introduce Tom Sawyer), which likes happy stuff.
I'm not really an exception -- I think the comic is fantastic, but frankly -- I'd much rather be around Sean Connery's Quartermain, 'cause he's more positive.
I do think that the book's Ms. Harker is much cooler.
