The Dark is Rising...

[fajrdrako]

I just watched the online trailer for The Dark is Rising. I have a major problem with it already. I'm in love with the villain.

Actually, it looks very much like those 'little boy's fantasy adventure' stories that I'm not terribly fond of. Like the first Star Wars movie. More than the book was. But... my goodness, could Christopher Eccleston look any sexier, in a Magical Dark Lord sort of way?

I fear I will have to watch two hours of the kid for ten minutes of this Dark Rider. Ah well, it's likely to be worth it.

Comments

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I do see what you mean about CE. And as Dark Lords go, he's preferable to a flaming eyeball any day.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

as Dark Lords go, he's preferable to a flaming eyeball any day

I'd say so! Preferable also to invisible entities in dented armour. Wait a minute... he played an invisible entity in Heroes (sans armour, and scruffy) and still managed to be gorgeous and sexy and engaging and acerbic and full of personality and I hope they bring him back next season.

He outclasses any flaming eyeball I ever met.

[toraks.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Eccleston, but that movie looks horrible! and I love the books! I can see why they might want to bring it into the present day, but that looks like a travesty.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't know about Eccleston,

I adore Eccleston. Sadly, like some other actors I love (Jason Isaacs springs to mind), he often plays villains. Such a waste!

but that movie looks horrible!

Yes. It's pathetic.

I can see why they might want to bring it into the present day, but that looks like a travesty.

I think it's a case where anyone who ever loved the books should stay right away from the movie. Any resemblance to the books will be both excruciating and accidental.

[littleblueghost.livejournal.com]

And most of the cast seems to be American - which has nothing to do with the book...

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

The trailer is NOTHING AT ALL like the book, and in fact completely destroys the spirit of the book. Everybody in the damned book is English, very English, and that's central to the plot.

On the other hand... shit. Christopher Eccleston. In leather.

I'll be the one in the back row with a bag over my head.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The trailer is NOTHING AT ALL like the book

I watched it thinking, "How could my memory of the book be that bad? I thought I remembered it. I see no resemblance." Just the title.

On the other hand... shit. Christopher Eccleston. In leather.

Yes. Exactly. Heartbreaking, almost.

I'll be the one in the back row with a bag over my head.

Good idea. Me too.

[silveraspen]

Eccleston looks like he's going to do a really good job, which is not a surprise.

Sadly, I think that may be the only thing at all redeeming about the film. The rest of the trailer made me want to claw my eyes out.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Eccleston looks like he's going to do a really good job, which is not a surprise.

I don't think I've ever seen him do a performance that was less than excellent - even in some movies and shows that weren't otherwise impressive.

I think that may be the only thing at all redeeming about the film.

I fear you are right. I'm trying not to be negative about it here, but... sheesh. I think the most unnerving thing is that looking at the trailer I don't even see reminders of the novel I read. It looks like a different story entirely.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

And it's apparently been Americanized on top of all that!* I agree -- Eccleston looks like the only good part of the whole movie.

* (I like American movies -- I just think that if a movie is based on a book set in England or Wales, and using much of the folklore of that country, it shouldn't change the location or the nationality of the main characters.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I agree - the book was so English in nature in theme, it seems utterly wrong to make the protagonists American. Though I suppose if we are talking about medieval heritage, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other. Still. It feels wrong.

[vervassal.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

Oh, Hollywood. How could you? I really shouldn't be surprised, you took The Phantom of the Opera and turned a psychological thriller (with, I Might Add, a Ballsy Heroine*) into something with all the integrity of a pastry-puff.

Now you've taken my favorite series of books, and turned it into a comedy. You've taken a British book about British folklore and mythology and culture, with very British characters and a British setting (which is integral, really, unless Arthur's sleeping under Mount Rainier), and--

*falls off of soapbox, has a concussion, spares the world her ramblings*



*Really! Christine's wonderful. She orders Raoul around and goes out on her own [i.e., has a life outside of the Opera] and is quite self-sufficient and grown up, and generally bears no resemblance to the doe-eyed twiglet in the films/plays.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes.

I feel I should appologize to you or something. I mean, it's like one of those nightmares where they film the Lymond books but change it to the 18th century and cast Joachim Phoenix as Lymond and set it in Spanish California. And then have the nerve to pretend it's the same story.

Shudder.

And in a way it makes it more painful that they cast Christopher Eccleston and made him look cool because that makes me want to see it and I (a) have otherwise no inclination and (b) don't want to encourage this sort of thing.

Painful.

And I agree with you about Christine and the Phantom movie. Even though I got to look at Gerard Butler. (But we see more of him in 300 anyway.)

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

...didn't actually get to the Dark Rider. I think if one is not capable of getting through the trailer, then the actual movie probably won't appeal. I don't like how they updated it - part of the appeal of the books for me was how rural, traditional, and English he background was. Also, how non-dysfunctional Will's family.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

We're running at an approval rating of about 0 here. Not impressive.

[atheneunknown.livejournal.com]

I must have an unknown fetish for men with the title/name Rider who ride a horse and have long dark hair.

Thats two now, CE, and Viggo in LOTR. Of course, loved both actors BEFORE they played the parts. *sigh*

Is he actually going to be in that movie that little? I was pondering seeing it, but if thats the case I'm not going to bother seeing it till it comes out on DVD.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

CE, and Viggo in LOTR. Of course, loved both actors BEFORE they played the parts.

I'd never seen Viggo Mortensen before The Lord of the Rings but I've been madly in love with Aragorn since my early teens - and Mortensen depicted him perfectly. Yes, he's a wonderful type - a hero in so many ways - and yes, we have the horse and the hair. Does the Cooper character also have longevity? I don't remember.

In any case, no I have no idea how much Eccleston will be in the movie - I just know the trailer only showed him briefly, which doesn't mean anything at all. I don't remember him being onstage a lot in the book but that doesn't mean anything either because obviously this movie isn't much like the book. I was just being pessimistic.

[trixtah.livejournal.com]

"I'm supposed to save the world? I can't even talk to a girl"? in the broadest American High Cheese you can imagine? Puh-bloody-lease.

I'm sorry, even with CE, all I can say about it is FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCK. In a totally bad way. And it won't be worth it. I'm another one who couldn't finish watching the trailer - what a waste.

And the Rider goes in and out of the stories - he's not in all of them, but he's pretty significant in the last one.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming that the movie doesn't deal with the whole story? Or maybe that's too much of an assumption - and too much of an assumption to believe that the movie will have any real connection to the story in the books anyway.

The more I think about it, the worse it seems.

[beck-liz.livejournal.com]

See, here's the thing. On the one hand, when I started watching the trailer having no idea what it was, I had absolutely no interest in the movie. I actually do like "little boy's fantasy adventure" to a certain extent, but a) it didn't look like that at first; and b) even without knowing that it was the Dark Is Rising, I could tell that they'd Americanized it inappropriately. And I've never even read the books, as you know. Then CE showed up and and and... *sigh* Stupid Hollywood.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You see the terrible dilemma!

Yeah, stupid Hollywood.

[imaginarytiff.livejournal.com]

Huh. I've never heard of read the books, but I'd probably suffer through this (on DVD, making good use of fast-forward) for scruffy Gregory Smith. Long-haired, evil Eccleston on horseback is a nice bonus.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Who is Gregory Smith?

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

shit, I hate kid's books, and the movies made from them

I'll just wait for some Who fan to edit out Chris and put it on youtube

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I hate kid's books, and the movies made from them

All of them? I'm trying to think of examples of them that I like - the Three Lives of Thomasina is the first I thought of, but really that wasn't a kid's book - it was an adult novel they made in to a movie for kids. The more I think about it the more I think I really don't much like kid's movies either. But there must be exceptions.... I jsut can't think of any.

I'll just wait for some Who fan to edit out Chris and put it on youtube

Oh - yes! Good plan. If I can bring myself to do that, I'll save myself $10 and an evening of my time.

But Chris would look so elegant and sexy on the big screen. (Wavering into the paths of temptation again...)