I Wish To Register A Complaint,...
Aug. 30th, 2023 10:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
waitingmanI just watched about 45 minutes of the TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's 'Hogfather'... & have come to the conclusion that the Discworld novels are unfilmable. The best one I saw was 'Going Postal' & even that wasn't as good as I'd hoped
Everything seems to be pantomimically over-acted, cheesy & full of the infamous BBC 2nd-rate special effects - Death's skull was so obviously plastic, it looked like it had been purchased from Daiso in the weeks leading up to Halloween... or more likely, in the clearance sale at the start of November
No wonder Neil Gaiman eventually looked to the USA to make his stuff... though that comes with its own issues - 'American Gods' was pretty good - it looked amazing & Ian Mcshane was an inspired casting coup - except for one critical flaw... the guy who was cast as Shadow played him as a self-centred, whingeing prat & if the audience don't empathise with the main character, you're doomed. See also: the last attempt at filming 'The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy'. I like Martin Freeman, but his Arthur Dent was bloody awful. Alan Rickman's Marvin is the only reason to watch the thing...
The TV adaptation of Pratchett & Gaiman's 'Good Omens' has all of the above flaws - overacting, bad SFX, unnecessary plot padding & Aziraphael is annoyingly unlikeable... played as an effete, prudish, gormless coward, with none of the implicit sense of power hinted at in the book. And could someone... & I'm looking at YOU Mr Gaiman, since Terry's not around to answer... explain to me why a 2nd season was at all necessary??!!??
FFS... In all these cases, you have source material that is loved by probably millions worldwide & all you have to do is put it on film & it will be a success. You don't have to re-write it, you don't have to introduce new plots & characters & above all, you don't have to hire all the 3rd-tier understudies from rural repertory theatres to play the parts...
Or is it just that I've read all these books so many times, that I have my own vision of what they look like inside my head & nothing's ever going to come close...?
Everything seems to be pantomimically over-acted, cheesy & full of the infamous BBC 2nd-rate special effects - Death's skull was so obviously plastic, it looked like it had been purchased from Daiso in the weeks leading up to Halloween... or more likely, in the clearance sale at the start of November
No wonder Neil Gaiman eventually looked to the USA to make his stuff... though that comes with its own issues - 'American Gods' was pretty good - it looked amazing & Ian Mcshane was an inspired casting coup - except for one critical flaw... the guy who was cast as Shadow played him as a self-centred, whingeing prat & if the audience don't empathise with the main character, you're doomed. See also: the last attempt at filming 'The Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy'. I like Martin Freeman, but his Arthur Dent was bloody awful. Alan Rickman's Marvin is the only reason to watch the thing...
The TV adaptation of Pratchett & Gaiman's 'Good Omens' has all of the above flaws - overacting, bad SFX, unnecessary plot padding & Aziraphael is annoyingly unlikeable... played as an effete, prudish, gormless coward, with none of the implicit sense of power hinted at in the book. And could someone... & I'm looking at YOU Mr Gaiman, since Terry's not around to answer... explain to me why a 2nd season was at all necessary??!!??
FFS... In all these cases, you have source material that is loved by probably millions worldwide & all you have to do is put it on film & it will be a success. You don't have to re-write it, you don't have to introduce new plots & characters & above all, you don't have to hire all the 3rd-tier understudies from rural repertory theatres to play the parts...
Or is it just that I've read all these books so many times, that I have my own vision of what they look like inside my head & nothing's ever going to come close...?
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Date: 2023-08-30 01:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-08-31 02:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-09-06 11:02 am (UTC)