The Fault In Our Stars - Film Review

tfiosThe Fault In Our Stars
Directed by Josh Boone
20th Century Fox
Worldwide Release: June 5th/6th 2014

We fell in love with this movie the way you fall asleep, slowly… and then all at once. Fans of John Green’s young adult novel of the same name have been patiently awaiting the release of The Fault In Our Stars since a division of 20th Century Fox optioned the rights to adapt it in early 2012. We attended the screening in May and upon entering the theater, cleverly filled with critics and fans, the audience exuded a genuine sense of anticipation. As the lights dimmed and the opening credits began there were a few squeals of excitement. I don’t know what I expected of Josh Boone’s endeavour, but I do know that I came away rather satisfied with the outcome.

The adaptation was a thoroughly enjoyable, rather faithful, rendering of John Green’s work. The casting was ace, the music on point and although there were a few scenes that I discovered didn’t translate well onto the big screen- the film didn’t suffer for it. In fact the omission of some aspects in the novel served to streamline the storyline in the film.

For those who haven’t heard of this ‘sick love story’ (have you been living under a rock?) the plot follows the life of one Hazel Grace Lancaster (played by Tris Prior, I mean Shailene Woodley) who meets Augustus Waters (Caleb Prior- I thought I’d finish the joke but now I just feel cheap- Ansel Elgort) at her cancer support group in the ‘literal heart of Jesus’. The Fault In Our Stars isn’t just about the relationship between two teenagers living with cancer, it’s about their ability to keep on keepin’ on despite having the weight of their mortality on their shoulders. The potentially mawkish subject matter was treated with just the right amount of honest humour, and bursts of tragic realism, that there was only an ever-so-slight teetering on the edge of over-sentimentality. It really was saved by moments of light-hardhearted self-deprecating humour. It’s always good when a movie doesn’t take itself too seriously.

eggs

A lot of this humour came in the form of one Isaac, (portrayed by the delightful Nat Wolff) Gus and Hazel’s friend also in cancer support group, who benefited from a well-written script that granted him some excellent lines. Laura Dern and Sam Trammell, Mrs and Mr Lancaster, were the perfect combination of fun[ny] and loving if weary (just below the surface) parents. Willem Dafoe made a formidable Peter van Houten- infusing the abhorrent character with just enough repugnance as to ramp up the author’s hateability. However the onus fell upon Woodley and Elgort to give us that chemistry we needed in order to believe the opinionated Hazel-Grace and pretentious Augustus were worth watching on the big screen- and boy did they deliver. There isn’t a moment that you don’t believe their emotion, from their first awkward exchanges and laughter to the tears and pain of heartache- there’s no escaping that belief.

It helped that we had an excellent soundtrack, with the right songs for the right moments, loud enough to drown out some of the sniffling in the audience. With artists like Ed Sheeran and Birdy contributing music written especially for the movie it was a wonder that there were any dry eyes in the house. While I can’t say that I, myself, allowed a tear to drop there were plenty buckets of creys around me to assure me that normal humans with emotions were suitably affected.

We gave it a FOUR out of FIVE Silent LOLS. Because while I can’t say that everything translated over well, the movie did the book justice where it really mattered. The film managed to make us laugh, cry and more importantly walk out of the cinema with a new found sense of life and what it means to truly live. The film had the potential to be a real Debbie-Downer but instead managed to instil a sense of hope that transcended the heartbreak. Proof that although the world may not be a wish-granting factory there were some things, and people, in it that you’d feel privileged to be heartbroken by. [Re]watch the trailer below and make sure you’re (mentally, emotionally and physically) ready by reading ‘A Fangirl’s Tale’. Okay? Okay.

Honourable Mentions:

- That’s the thing about pain, it demands to be felt.

- So I now know why I didn’t see John Green’s cameo, the scene was cut from the film. While it seems he would have replaced the mum who pulls her daughter away after the girl asks Hazel about her cannula, I was really hoping it’d be just a glimpse of him in the background in the airport against a wall vlogging. Oh well.

 

The Fault In Our Stars - A Fangirl’s Tale

Seeing The Fault In Our Stars last month had to be a highlight of this year, especially since I saw it before a ton of people. Yasssss, I felt so boss. Continue to read and you’ll understand why. Also be sure to look out for our review which will be posted closer to the release date.

The Fault In Our Stars is not a movie for the light-hearted, but for those with the heart of a warrior! Just look at all the people who read the books! True survivors, who experienced the pain of being in a fandom such as this one. But like so many other tfios-stans, I was lined up to watch this film, accepting the emotional scarring, even before I knew it was being made into a movie!

Rocking up to the cinema, I was already crying tears of joy.

And I continued to cry as the opening credits began, starting with Hazel’s voice-over.

It was everything I hoped it would be.

It made me go…

then I was…

and then I was…

I kid you not, that was me in the cinema. You can’t judge me, because I know for fact that you will be a sobbing mess the exact same way that I was!

And despite the bucketload of tears that were shed that night, (and the morning after) I loved it so much and couldn’t have wished for anything more.

The world is not a wish-granting factory but this movie made all my wishes come true.

I saw my strong, beautiful and amazing Hazel Grace.

I saw my loving one and only, Augustus Waters.

And everything was okay.

The Fault In Our Stars’ Extended Trailer Is Beautiful And I DARE You To Try And Tell Me Otherwise

HEY HEY HEY! The extended trailer for The Fault In Our Stars has been released!! I can’t even express how pumped I am for the film. It’s to be released in New Zealand on the 5th of June, so be sure to start booking seats early, because it’s going to be jam packed with Nerdfighters there to see John Green’s words come to life.

This is going to be the best! Like, look at that? Remember when I cried tears of joy reading this? Remember that I’m actually crying right now because it’s just beautiful? Yeah. Remember that!

Is it okay if I cry in advance for the film? I don’t even care, the trailer made me so happy and I feel like I’m on a train, approaching FEELS VILLAGE or something and I’m already hyperventilating, and crying and raging.

This can’t be helped.

Beware for more follow-ups on The Fault In Our Stars.

It’s going to be hella intense.

DFTBA!

The Fault In Our Stars “It’s A Metaphor” Clip

metaphor

ACK!

We all remember this moment, yeah? When Hazel and Augustus get a’talking and Augustus pulls out a cigarette and you’re with Hazel as she goes all ‘dude, wtf’ on him. But then he tells her he doesn’t light it and that it’s a metaphor and it’s just all the adorbs. You’ve gotta admit, Woodley and Elgort have great chemistry.

I don’t see Beatrice and Caleb Prior AT ALL.

The Fault In Our Stars opens in New Zealand cinemas on June 5th, 2014. Who’s ready for it?

Film Review: Divergent - Faction Before Blood

2014-DivergentDivergent
Directed by Neil Burger
Summit Entertainment | Lionsgate
NZ Release: 10 April 2014

I was eager to see how the book would translate onto the big screen and I must say, despite a few gripes, I rather enjoyed it. The action/fight sequences were on point and the visuals were pretty good- despite its less than stellar budget. However I can’t deny that there were a few things, the more I think about it, that didn’t sit quite well with me. While it doesn’t hurt that Four (Theo James), Beatrice Prior aka Tris (Shailene Woodley) and the entire cast really give some great performances, and are mighty-easy on the eye, there were moments where you wondered if anyone who hadn’t read the books would understand what exactly was going on.

Worry not, whether you’ve read the book series or are going in blind, this half of the review is safe and spoiler free.

Shailene Woodley and Theo James in Divergent trailer GIF

If you’ve read the book, you’ll find there were some scenes noticeably absent from the movie- methinks for the mere fact that it errs on the ‘too graphic’ side of things for a comfortable PG-13 rating. (Although I swear they snuck in the f-bomb. Could be my ears?) Also, there are some characterisation changes that may or may not have been due to casting, but first thing’s first:

Yer Divergent, Tris!

So we know the basic storyline from the trailer, a place set in a future, Dystopian, Chicago- with a suitably Dystopian-type fortification/fence/wall- where society is split into five distinct factions (Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Amity and Candor) based on five distinct virtues/traits (selflessness, bravery, intelligence, peacefulness and honesty). At the ripe old age of 16, with a little help of an aptitude test that should tell you what faction you’re geared towards, you’re to choose which faction you want to be part of for the rest of your life. That’s right, no take backs! Once you’ve chosen- that’s it, from there on out it’s “Faction Before Blood”.

With rather stunning aerial shots of a post-apocalyptic Chi-town showing in the background Tris’ voice-over makes it clear from the get-go that while “the system is designed to foster peace” it’s more about control than anything else. And the movie really hammers it into you that this mass categorization of society is merely a means of control.

If you exhibit more than one distinct trait you’re ‘what they call’ Divergent, and that -my friend- is a no no. It is this very predicament the Abnegation-born Tris, who doesn’t fit into any particular category, finds herself. At the Choosing Ceremony she chooses Dauntless, those crazy sons of britches (yes, I do mean pants) and the fun begins. By fun I mean getting the crap kicked out of you and basically getting around by parkour/free-running all the time.

I’m going to go ahead and say that any comparisons to The Hunger Games are unwarranted for the mere fact that if anything Divergent in the grand scheme of things has more in common, plot-wise, with an entirely different series- The Maze Runner. Justification below in the Spoiler Corner- enter at your own risk. Also, if you’re understandably sick of angsty love-triangles Divergent will be a breath of fresh air.

While the movie felt a bit too long, it never felt like it was dragging- except for an extended scene at the end which really milked the high intensity climax for all it was worth. And yet, once things started moving there didn’t seem to be any room to catch one’s breath let alone understand what was going on. I did find myself wondering how the movie would come across to people who hadn’t read the series. There’s a chance the uninitiated could get lost once the pace picks up.

One thing’s for sure, you’ll like the characters- mostly because you’re not given much insight into them. Although we’ll see how that likeability is sustained in the next two movies as we, hopefully, get more. Thank goodness the cast meshed well, making what was some awkward dialogue in places, work. Kate Winslet suffered from Jeanine’s obvious ‘villainry’- I get that it makes for easy storytelling and with the way the novel itself is set up we don’t fully appreciate/understand these characters’ rationales until Allegiant. But you’d think the screenwriters would have found a way around it.

Which is why the movie’s a bit of a fanservice, because anyone who hasn’t read the books might come out thinking the characters were bland and the premise of the story mirrored other YA narratives like no one’s business. It doesn’t help that they utilised shaky cam at points, in a way that was very Hunger Games. For a movie heavy on exposition at the start there is almost no explanation towards the end when the pace picks up. Nevertheless when it comes out on the 10th of April, I’ll no doubt be glad to take my sister to see it again.

As a fan of the series I’m very glad Divergent is practically critic-proof right now, and that we should see Insurgent come 2015. However because of those little hiccups we must give it THREE out of FIVE Silent LOLs. Which is unfortunate because I really wanted to give it…

 

out of FIVE Silent LOLs.

Giggity.

 

Honourable Mentions :

- I really do like the casting and watching the movie confirmed it for me. I heard/read dissent about Shailene Woodley somewhere but *shrug* haters gon’ hate. Theo James’ voice tho’.

- Anyone else Silently LOL about Miles Teller, who played Shailene’s character’s love-interest in The Spectacular Now being her antagonist/rival here and at Ansel Elgort, playing her brother here when he’ll be her love-interest in The Fault in Our Stars? Just me? Okay.

- Amity is totally for the stoners. There, I said it lol.

- Kate Winslet gives good side-eye. That sounds rude, but I assure you we’re keepin’ it PG-13.

- Go take the official aptitude test and find out what faction you’d fit in. (My results show I score Erudite and Dauntless..lol and Candor?)

Divergent Aptitude Results

SpoilerAlertSpoiler Corner! (Not really a corner, is it?) Only go past this point if you’ve read the books, or just don’t care about spoilers. You’ve been warned.

More Maze Runner than Hunger Games:

Jess and I were talking about the series as a whole and how people keep comparing Divergent to The Hunger Games however if you take a step back- and view the series as a whole you’ll find that Divergent has much more in common with The Maze Runner than it does with The Hunger Games outside a female protagonist, a corrupt governing body and a Dystopian future setting. The Maze Runner has also been made into a film, which will be released this September. Spoilers for Both Allegiant and The Death Cure below.

As a whole Tris’ and Thomas’ (Maze Runner) worlds have much more in common than Tris’ and Katniss’. More social behaviour experiments and science than the divide between the haves and the have nots.

Both protagonists in Divergent and The Maze Runner were ‘free’ from whatever it was that the others suffered from. Tris’ genes were ‘healed’ and Thomas didn’t suffer from the flare. Both their original governing officials were responsible for the apocalypse? With manmade weapons/experiments?

So it’s really annoying how people keep comparing it to The Hunger Games when all Divergent really has in common with THG is a strong female lead and a post-apocalyptic/dystopian world.

Peter

Don’t get me wrong, Miles Teller made for great comic relief at points- however that’s the problem. In the book Peter is legitimately seen as a threat to Tris’, and Jess fears that the way the movie’s characterised him is problematic. They’ve made Peter a somewhat lovable douche as opposed to the outright antagonist he is in the novel.

They also nixed the extremely brutal eye-stabbing scene, when Peter proves just how cowardly he is by stabbing Edward (who would have been the number one initiate) in the eye causing him to become factionless as he would not have been able to complete the initiation.

Where’s Uriah?

I do believe the black guy who invited Tris along to zip-lining after capture the flag might be him, but we’re not explicitly given his name. I NEED MY URIAH! Also, Marlene and Zeke and any Dauntless born member. Uriah especially, considering how important he becomes- you’d think they would want to at least introduce him- as it’s HIM that invites Tris to do zip-lining. Insurgent it is then.

Rapey?

I did that thing where you skim tweets and posts on tumblr to gage the general impression from fans and something that I wondered about while watching the movie seemed to be mentioned quite a bit. In the book one of Tris’ fears that shows up in her landscape is a fear of intimacy- in the movie it comes off as though Tris is afraid of Four raping her? The novel makes it very clear that Tris isn’t afraid of Four/Tobias as a person, however the idea of intimacy is such a foreign concept to her- having grown up in Abnegation- that it manifests itself as a fear of being intimate. Perhaps they needed to amp up the urgency of the her fear and the unfortunate by-product is the unpleasantness that moviegoers will subconsciously link to Four.

I do commend how Tris handles herself in that situation. Boom, pow! Onomatopoeia!

Visiting Day?

Visiting day was left out, which is interesting because I can see what they were doing with making Tris’ mum even more badass by stealing away to sneak a meeting with Dauntless guards about. However it therefore leaves out her mum telling Tris that Abnegation parents don’t get to visit their children in Erudite. Which Tris then tells Caleb when she sneaks into Erudite’s headquarters- sowing the seeds of doubt in him about his faction. And further establishing Erudite’s dodginess lol.

But most importantly, where was the Dauntless Cake?

 

Watch the final Divergent Trailer

What did you think about the final Divergent trailer? As someone who’s recently read the book I’m rather impressed with how it’s looking. I’m not here to complain about the cast, I think they cast the film adaptation pretty well. Always the first hurddle, in my head. I like Shailene Woodley as Beatrice -Tris- Prior, sure she’s supposed to be a lot blonder but she’s got Beatrice’s fear-to-BAMF face down pat. We’ve got Theo James as Four (he has another name but I’m not sure if it’s spoilery to say it…skip to the next paragraph now if you think it is. His real name, because who would name their kid a number, Tobias.

Hilarious that Miles Teller plays douchebag Peter, because he was her love interest in Spectacular Now, the lovely Zoë Kravitz as the blunt, because she’s from Candor, Christina and another hilarious cast Ansel Elgort as Tris’ brother, Caleb. Yeah, Augustus from The Fault in Our Stars- okay? Yeah a little bit not, just remember to differentiate between movies or it’ll be weird for you. I haven’t seen anything about Will or Al or even Uriah a few other friends she makes in Dauntless.

But Kate Winslet! She has the wonderful job of playing the big bad, scary because she’s so smart that intelligence overrides basic human compassion, Jeanine Matthews. And also, NIKITA!!! I mean, Maggie Q as Tori was a brilliant cast. Brilliant.

The world that the director, Neil Burger, and screenwriters Vanessa Taylor and Evan Daugherty have taken from the books and recreated visually looks like it’s on track. I’m looking forward to the action and the banter and watching Tris move from the stifling Abnegation to the dangerous world of the Dauntless. Mostly I’m keen to see how what I’ve read will translate to audiences on the screen, especially the simulations…and train hopping. I hope people don’t try that at home.

The Fault In Our Stars Trailer is here!

Here we are nerdfighters and readers of John Green’s international bestselling tearjerker The Fault In Our Stars. Can you really separate the two? 20th Century Fox has premiered the trailer for the adaptation of one of the most heartbreaking novels I’ve read, and from what we’ve seen it’s set to be as soul crushing as the book.

The YouTube description’s synopsis goes like this: Hazel (Shailene Woodley) and Gus (Ansel Elgort) are two extraordinary teenagers who share an acerbic wit, a disdain for the conventional, and a love that sweeps them — and us — on an unforgettable journey. Their relationship is all the more miraculous, given that they met and fell in love at a cancer support group. THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, based upon the number-one bestselling novel by John Green, explores the funny, thrilling and tragic business of being alive and in love.

My synopsis goes like this: asdfghgjhfdsfgfhfdsadfghds my emotions!

The movie comes out in June in the US, but what about New Zealand? I’ll keep my eyes peeled.