The Waiting Man

Middle Earth...

Actually, it's the Tasman Glacier lake, with Aoraki, New Zealand's highest peak, just out of shot to the left... If you've seen the Lord of the Rings & Hobbit movies, you've seen these mountains

Long-Suffering Partner & I were discussing book-to-screen adaptations over brunch today, having just watched the 3rd season of American Gods, which was cancelled at the end of that season only getting through ¾ of the book itself, but stuffing in a whole lot of subplots that weren't in the original text, for minor characters & then not finishing them either... Despite the presence of the mighty (& perfectly cast!) Ian McShane as Mr Wednesday, we label the series another failure, in a line of failures, to adapt Neil Gaiman's books to visual media - which is why L-SP isn't too excited about the upcoming adaptation of his Sandman comics 'graphic novellas'... & neither am I, really

Which made us think about other novels that didn't translate to the screen... I loved the original LOTR trilogy, but just couldn't warm to the Hobbit films in the same way, despite them being made by largely the same team. Ironically, the magic just doesn't seem to be there... for me, at least

Catch 22, while a good film on its own - both of them, actually, didn't capture the cynical absurdity of the novel. The Hunger Games films lacked the sense of bleak desperation that drove their protagonist(s). And Twilight doesn't count - the books are shit, so it follows that the films are as well...

On the other hand, the film of The Name Of The Rose was, in my not-so-humble opinion, infinitely preferable to the stonking plodder of a novel it came from

Et Toi??

We just finished watching Zack Snyder's 'Justice League'... At just under 4 hours, it's a bit of an endurance test for your backside, but I must say it's the first time I've been really happy with one of the new crop of DC movies - including the previous version of the movie. Actually, the first 'Wonder Woman' was pretty good - haven't seen the 2nd one yet, but the 4,375,627th Superman movie, then the whole Batman vs Superman thing & the shambles that was 'Suicide Squad' & especially the Harley Quinn film, almost make you look back with faint fondness at Ryan Reynolds' turn in 'Green Lantern'...

At least this version explained the plot a lot better & set up the main set pieces a lot better. Probably in a way that was never going to work as a normal 90-120 minute movie, so god only knows what Zack Snyder would have had to cut if he'd stuck with the film initially... & how incomprehensible it may have turned out without all the extra exposition. This version does, of course, completely dispense with the extra scenes shot by Joss Whedon (apparently, Snyder said he'd rather destroy the film entirely, than use any Whedon footage!!) & gives more time & a greater role to Cyborg, played by Ray Fisher - the actor who first aired complaints about Whedon's treatment of him on set... soon followed by so many others - which does make you wonder about how toxic that set must have been, if Whedon pretty much relegated Cyborg to a lesser role

Anyway, if you find yourself with nothing to do for 4 hours of your day, there are worse things you could do, or watch... Green Lantern for example... or worse, Green Hornet!!!