
by
hamlet » Sun Nov 10, 2013 8:00 am
I just saw it yesterday as part of a company . . . .thing.
Anyway, having read the book many years ago, I will defer how it compares since I can barely remember the details of everything in the novel.
I will say that, overall, it was a very good movie, all things considered. It was balanced enough that it appealed to the young adult audience that it was originally aimed at and fits well, I presume, with the Burning Games crowd. It was accessible to a young audience I'm saying. At the same time, though, they've managed to infuse it with enough depth that grown ups aren't going to feel like they're sitting through a kid's movie and just suffering. It spends some time talking about subjects that are fairly in depth and approaching "grown up think" so to speak. I like that balance. It means that those kids who like it today are likely to find new value in it again 10 years down the road, which I think is important.
I do think, though, that it was a little too fast paced. It struggled in that regard, moving from one scene to the next as fast as possible to fit everything in, and in the end, it might have benefited from being a two part movie, or even a mini-series instead. It would have allowed the movie makers to spread things out a bit to let them have maximum impact on the audience rather than just ushering them along to the next cool scene.
The special effects were fantastic. I'd love to know how they managed the weightless scenes. They were done flawlessly compared to so many that I've seen that struggled. The tech was believable looking, which is always nice. Didn't look, like the new Star Trek, like they raided an Apple store, but looked like it followed on from tech trends today.
Don't remember if it was in the first novel, or not, but I would have liked to have the explanation for why the Formics/bundle invaded in the first place (I know, water) but then backed way off and never returned. As I recall, there was an actual explanation for it and it was quite an interesting one all things considered. Just don't remember if it was in the first novel, or if it waited for a couple later.
All in all, a very good movie for what it is. Definitely worth the $10 to go see it in 2D.