Monday, May 27, 2013

The Great Gatsby (2013) Movie VS the book

I didn't really plan on doing a review for this but seeing as how the theater was full yesterday there must still be some demand to see it. I'll tell you like it is, if you are a super mega fan of this book and you're hoping for the movie to be an exact replica you'll be disappointed. I, however, not being a super mega fan, found the movie to be really enjoyable. Dare I say that I thought it was better than the book? Yes. I do.

A major change was that Nick (played by Tobey Maguire, one of my favorite actors) was telling his story to a therapist, whom then encouraged him to write about it to get it off his chest. I really liked this change. I thought it was interesting and unique. Even though Nick was narrating he said some things that weren't in the book but worked really well for the movie. The movie was much faster paced than the book, which I also really enjoyed. Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) was exactly who you would expect him to be and not much about his character changed. Daisy (Carey Mulligan) however was not anything like Daisy from the book. She wasn't as stupid sounding, but in the end she was still a bitch.

I also really enjoyed how in the movie all the major symbols from the book were not only kept but explained. I did a whole project on this book and so I already knew the meanings of all the symbols. It was interesting to see them so obvious on the screen. I think it may have helped some people who didn't really get the book in high school to understand it now.

The one major flaw to this movie was that I half expected Tobey to turn into Spider-Man at any second so I couldn't really take him seriously at all. I guess that's more my fault than the movies, but still. I just cant picture Tobey as anybody but Peter Parker.

There were a lot of changes but overall I think it was close enough to the book. I think most true fans will be angry with adaptation. But if you read my review of The Great Gatsby from a while ago then you would know that I had mixed feelings about the book and I wasn't completely in love with it. I am, however, completely in love with this movie. I do think it was better than the book (a rare occurrence), and it's something I would really like to see again.

I give this movie four and half stars

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