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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.)

[vervassal.livejournal.com]

they film the Lymond books but change it to the 18th century and cast Joachim Phoenix as Lymond and set it in Spanish California.

Actually, that doesn't sound half bad.

And then have the nerve to pretend it's the same story. Except for that bit.

Well, I'll live. I'll just avoid the film like the plague- and honestly? It's not like this is the first film to bastardize Celtic stuff. That honour belongs to... someone in the 18th century. Sir Walter Scott, maybe, or Queen Vic, or any number of Romantic poets who decided that "Celtic" meant grey rocky landscapes and roiling purple storms and the last, lone, chalk-covered kilt-wearing Noble Savage of a Celt warbling about his sadness to the kestrel and the crane. It helps if he's blind and everyone he cares about is dead.

*deep breath*

Right. I'm... I'm just gonna go... calm down. Over there.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You are right about Sir Walter Scott.

And I Do Not Approve.

drive-by quote!

[vervassal.livejournal.com]

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains, --- but the best is lost.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

As someone has pointed out elsewhere "it's not like stories about English boys fighting evil are popular or anything."

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"it's not like stories about English boys fighting evil are popular or anything."

Uh... right. They could even throw in magic. Weird, weird marketing decisions. I mean... why?

I never understand why the moviemakers option a movie and then make a film that has nothing in common with the original but the title. Why bother? Why not just write a new story in the first place?

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Do you think they were worried that a film version of a 30 year old book would seem like a copy-cat of the Potter series? I suspect it's more like
trying for equal time (why should England have the monopoly on magic boys, after all), but it's hard to say.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Either way, it's ridiculous and makes no sense. Different kinds of magic, different kinds of stories. There's no problem in having stories about American kids having magical adventures, but why, then, pretend it's from a book that isn't about that?

Re: drive-by quote!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! I love Edna St. Vincent Millay, though I confess I couldn't at first place where that was from. Fascinating woman. And her way with words... she's one of those people I wish I could have known, wish I could have invited her to one of those imaginary dinner parties with other fascinating people.

[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.

[omnivorously.livejournal.com]

I really wouldn't have seen Dark is Rising as a good book to be made into a film. So much backstory. Requires a lot of flashy special effects, which wasn't the draw of the book. They should make more movies based on theme park rides.

[fadryn.livejournal.com]

Ah yes but he does make a very sexy villain, don't you think?
Norfolk in Elizabeth. Yum.