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pratrincewind
Reviews
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
For the Literary Impaired.............
This has to be one of the worst book adaptations I have ever seen. I've read the book about 5 years before I watched the movie and I must say that the book is FANTASTIC, compared to this hogwash. Although I forgot most of the characters' names and parts of the plot, I still recognized a crappy scaled down movie. It's simplified in the usual American style. I apologize to the literate part of Americans who have read the novel which is probably the most popular adventure novel in history.
The plot doesn't even match the book. The only true part of the movie is the prison If sequence, and that's also changed, even though that part of the novel piles up to maybe 100 pages! I possibly exaggerated, but since the whole novel is 1000-1300 (depends on the publisher) that's almost a tiny part of the novel, and they had the nerve not get it right! The other aspects of this novel-to-movie adaptation gone horribly wrong are as follows. Most important characters are either gone or changed altogether. Benedetto, Caderousse, Bertuccio, Haydée, Ali, Baptistin are all missing from the movie, with many more to follow. 99% of the script doesn't have anything to do with the plot of the book. Even the fates of Mondego, Danglars and Villefort have been altered. Mondego doesn't commit suicide, Villefort doesn't go to a mental asylum and, most importantly, Danglars isn't forgiven by Dantes.
I recommend the mini-series with Gerard Depardieu but it also has changes, but not so much as this brain dead movie. The only complaint about the series, as well as the movie, is the change in the end of the story. Originally Dantes continues his life with Haydee NOT with Mercedes as is depicted in every adaptation.
All in all, this is a very f#$#*ed up movie. Don't watch it! READ THE BOOK!
Shinseiki Evangelion (1995)
The quiet before the disappointment
Before I watched the anime I heard about it through word of mouth and from Wikipedia. After watching it I felt extremely disappointed. At first it intrigued me with it's first episodes and interesting characters. It echoed the classic style of mecha anime with episodes centered on the EVA - Angel battles.
The character development was going slowly but steadily. Everybody had their quirks and flaws, since few anime characters are flawless.
However, after the 18 episode, which I felt was the most impressive in terms of emotion, the show has gone downhill. The animation is reused , and all of the characters personalities decay. After watching the final 8, I was disgusted with the characters, thinking how could I have favoured such an anime that has mentally disturbed characters. From a melancholy Shinji, soulless Rei, to an egotistical Asuka & heartless Gendo, all characters are clear mental cases. The final 2 episodes, which were not in "the real world" so to speak, infuriated me since they were just the directors buffer for his own Freudian theories, ideas, and everything else he copied out of dear Freud's books.
The movie helped increase the shows value but it still gave me a sense of dread as to what the director had in mind for the series. What creeps in Anno's mind I dare not speculate, since he made the show on his breakdown experience. I even dare say that he left half of the character's stories unfinished leaving me even more distanced form them. I usually prefer the love - hate choice when it comes to anime characters, so I am baffled by the fact that I left all characters, in the end, in the undetermined position.
My final vote is 6, because I liked it at the start, and hated it at the end.
My anime of choice is Vision of Escaflowne, Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell, which also has philosophical questions but answers them in a more direct and introspective manner. Even the gory Akira is on my list because of it's political and evolutionary motifs.
A final word of note is that if you want to ask and give psychological questions and answers, do it with characters we can relate to. I doubt most people could relate to mentally disturbed characters.