Well today I decided to go watch TFIOS and while I still have feels for the movie I shall blog about it. I heard it was really sad and all and loads of people cried watching so I figured I probably would too. Hmm but the movie did disappoint me a little (Not only because I didn't cry). After all, the book is always better than the movie since movies do have time constraints and etc. This movie followed the book pretty closely but I think that was its most major flaw (Ironically.). I mean like if I didn't read the book I would have been pretty clueless about what was happening and I would have been like what's up with the imperial affliction book they kept talking about and who the hell is the dutch tulip man and the whole movie would have felt incomplete if I hadn't read the actual book. I guess I did make the right choice of not finishing the book (I usually don't finish books) because I really dislike the thought of endings.The ending did surprise me a little as I was partly expecting Hazel Grace to die but alas! that wasn't the case. (Spoilerrrr) The movie felt like it didn't have a backbone to the whole plot since I felt it relied a little too much on the audience's knowledge by reading the book.
On a general note, I felt the characterisation of the book was excellent but the plot was a little lacking cos it felt incomplete (For the same reason why Hazel Grace liked A Imperial Affliction so much. The story was complete but it just ended so abruptly like what happened to Hazel Grace?? What happened to Isaac?? Did he get back with Monica?? So many unanswered questions...)
Now for some commentary on the characters.
Hazel Grace - I liked her character. Her personality was realistic. I think one of the most memorable parts about her parts in the movie would be her comparing herself to a grenade. I think that strikes a chord in a lot of terminally ill people. Shailene Woodley did a great job in portraying Hazel Grace I guess since I felt she plays similar roles as Beatrice Prior in Divergent with the strong independent type of character and portraying Hazel Grace as a sick but strong person would easily be the perfect role for her.
Augustus Waters - First impression of Gus when I watched the movie was errrrr creepy? The way he smiled at Hazel Grace was kinda creepy(?) Sorry Ansel Elgor, maybe toothy smiles would look less creepy. Other than that I felt weirded out because Ansel Elgort played the role of Caleb Prior in Divergent which means that he acted as Shailene's sibling so erm... you get it. Ok back to the movie. I liked how Gus was all metaphoric and all with the cigarettes and his obsession with metaphors fascinated me. The quotes that came out from the character Augustus Waters were all spun out beautifully. In fact, the book/movie has so many beautiful quotes I can't even decide on which one I like best. However, I would have to mention how terribly cheesy a character Gus was. I'm not into anything cheesy so those awkward scenes when he was like he said I love you probably 5 times straight made me squirm a little haha. Oh! There was this part when he was wearing the Rik Smits (Dutch basketballer) jersey and holding DUTCH tulips and he brought Hazel to the funky bones sculpture which is oh so coincidentally sculpted by a DUTCH artist. Gus commented about how the tomatoes weren't dutch but mexican. I laughed at that part but nobody laughed with me so I guess I have a weird sense of humour >: There are a lot of dutch references in the book/movie since everything is like co-related to Amsterdam, which is in The Netherlands.
Isaac - Comedy Relief! Isaac was such a funny character I bet he made a lot of people smile while they were crying. The actor didn't quite act like a blind person very well but his lines overshadowed that. A certain quote from this character made me tear up a little. "If a robot came from the future and gave me robot eyes, i would tell that robot to piss off because i don't want to see a world without Augustus Waters." I don't know why but that was so emotionally touching because the thought of leaving behind people who would think of you once in a while and not forget that you were once and always will be their best friend makes me happy in a sad way.
Peter Van Houten - Probably the portrayal of a realistic adult in society. A character that hides all of his kindness within, drains his sorrow with alcohol. A lot of people do that I guess. Augustus Waters did trigger some kindness within him and towards the end of the movie we do see that he is actually not that much of a douche because he offers to tell Hazel what happens in the end in A Imperial Affliction.
Wow there's really so much to the book/movie and so many inferences we can make. This is kind of exhausting and I'm kind of dozing off already. Even commentaries make me exhausted like how about full blown literature essays. Maybe sparknotes will be the right place to find analysis of the book I guess. (LONG LIVE SPARKNOTES THE SAVIOUR OF LIT STUDENTS) With that, I shall end this because I have a pile of work waiting to be done.Thats the thing about work, it demands to be done. ;)
Byee