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I just finished reading almost 700 great pages of "Desperation" and was excited to see how it would look as a movie. I knew going in that it would most likely be changed and watered down a bit since it was made-for-TV, but I thought the extent of that would be no foul language (since in the book there's a ton of it) and less gore. Let me tell ya... There was a LOT more wrong than just that. Where to begin... So much was changed that it would be impossible to touch on all of it so I guess I'll just talk about the things that bothered me most.
The first half hour I have to say was not so bad aside from the bad camera angles (a lot of worms-eye-view shots), the stale acting and the cheesy "made-for-TV" look it had overall. It was a lot less dark and eerie than I pictured in my head, and they sort of rushed through everything and made minor changes here and there but those things were to just keep it current since the book was written 10 years ago and also they needed to speed things up based on the time they had for the film. So far, not a major upset. I can live with those things.
But then out of nowhere... Are you kidding me?
First of all, in the book the kid David had this entire back-story about his friend Brian almost dying and it was literally one of the most important back drops for the entire thing - they cut it out. Instead they showed his friend get hit by a car and David crying over him and that was that. Because that whole story line was cut out they also had to change the ending because the ending was based on something that happened there and MAN did they cheese up the ending by putting David's yearbook with a picture of Johnny and Pie in it. I almost lost it.
They cut out one character all together, Audrey who was a MAJOR character in the middle of the story which helps the people figure out what's going on. Instead of having her in the story they just gave Tom (the old drunk who lived in Desperation) more lines to describe things and keep the audience up to speed although it was still way confusing if you didn't read the book. Also, They didn't show them trying to escape and the road being blocked, which if I didn't read the book I'd be like, "what the hell is your problem, just drive out of town, why are you still there?"
What really bothered me though, is this - David had these voices he heard, which were meant to be the voice of God. In the movie it was his dead sister talking to him. And one of the coolest parts of the book is when David is passed out and goes up to the land of the dead in his dream and sees a guy in a NY Yankees hat. The guy in the hat tells him the story of the evil going on in Desperation and tells him that he needs to carry out God's work. When he wakes up, Johnny tries to leave and leaves his wallet behind. In going through Johnny's wallet he sees an old picture of Johnny back in Viet Nam and realizes that the guy talking to him in heaven was Johnny when he was younger. He also realizes that back in the day with his pal Brian (who they barely mentioned like I said) they named their tree house the "Viet Cong Lookout" which is where Johnny was killed. It all came together in a really cool way like an episode of Lost and was the coolest thing about the book and NONE OF IT HAPPENED in the movie. Instead, his dead sister showed him the LAMEST silent movie in the projection room of the theater to tell him the story of why the evil exists, and then for some reason he just "knows" he has to finish God's work. Terrible.
There was so much more that was left out or changed too but I'll be here all day if I go over them all. This movie was God awful. And the worst part is, if I try to tell someone how good the book is and they've seen the movie they're gonna be like, "oh yeah, I saw that on TV. That was pretty bad, no thanks." I mean, that's what I would say if I were them.
It's amazing to me that Stephen King actually did this Teleplay based on his own book. The book had almost 700 pages and the movie covered about 100 of them and then made up another new 100. If you haven't seen this movie version of "Desperation" then I say you should definitely read the book if you like Stephen King novels. Just for the love of God, stay away from the movie. The movie makes me want to drop-kick someone in the forehead. So corny. So lame.
score 1/10
Blacklock22 24 June 2007
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1679924/ |
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2-4-2021 03:20:05