Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Price of Success

My family and I went to see The Spiderwick Chronicles movie on Saturday. I was excited to go because one, it was a change in the routine, and two, I like fantasy movies - I don’t care what age they’re meant for, I’m going to see it if I can. My son and I had read the books, but no one else had. As it turned out, the non-readers enjoyed the movie and my son was okay with it, too. Me? Well, I had a hard time with it. I kept expecting to see certain things happen, but they either didn’t happen or were completely changed. Example: How they meet the griffin was not at all like how it happened in the book. And the ending took place in the house, not in that other place. If you read the books, you know what I’m talking about. There were many more changes, as well, so I’m not getting all hepped up about just two. I’m not that big of a baby.

Close, but not quite.

I wonder how the author, Holly Black, felt about the changes? She apparently like the movie, though I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have told anyone if she hated it. And actually, it wasn’t a bad movie. I imagine that if I had watched it first, before reading the books, I would’ve liked it better. However, being that the books were fresh in my mind, I just couldn’t separate the two. When the movie world and the book world didn’t jive with each other, I ended up feeling frustrated, which I don’t like. I get enough of that from my children.

But that’s life, I guess. Maybe I should just teach myself not to expect anything, not get my hopes up or get excited. Naahhh! Anticipation can sometimes be the best part of the experience, as well as the reminiscing afterwards.

At any rate, it was a nice break from reality, even if I couldn’t quite cope with the changes. The popcorn was good. And it was the same as always…yummy.

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