I Love Movies
I saw “Doctor Sleep” last night. The closing credits included, “Based on the novel by Stephen King.”
If it said, “Loosely based on the novel by Stephen King,” that would have been more accurate.
It wasn’t a bad movie; what it got right, it got right. Danny Torrance from “The Shining,” grows up, finds unhealthy ways of dealing with his past and his gift, but comes back to the side of health. That part was great - and went along with the book. The “bad guys” - a tribe of energy vampires known as the True Knot - also went closely to the book. The casting for those roles was great, too.
But if you read the book, you will know that they made a major change to the plot, and I think they lost out on an opportunity to be more creative and original. This part of the movie was pretty much, “The Overlook Hotel Part II.” Good idea if you liked “The Shining”, but a total departure from the book, “Doctor Sleep.”
In changing the ending, they also eliminated one of the best characters in the book, Abra’s great-grandmother, Momo. She played a major role in the book, and in the movie, she doesn’t even appear; she gets mentioned in passing. Momo would have been an awesome addition to the movie, played by somebody like Olympia Dukakis.
And there’s a bad scene where the True Knot is savaging one of their victims, which just didn’t need to be as explicitly violent. They could have showed him being tied down and then the screen could have faded to black or something.
If I hadn’t read the book, I might give this movie a B-. Since I did read the book, and liked the book better, I’m giving it a C.
If it said, “Loosely based on the novel by Stephen King,” that would have been more accurate.
It wasn’t a bad movie; what it got right, it got right. Danny Torrance from “The Shining,” grows up, finds unhealthy ways of dealing with his past and his gift, but comes back to the side of health. That part was great - and went along with the book. The “bad guys” - a tribe of energy vampires known as the True Knot - also went closely to the book. The casting for those roles was great, too.
But if you read the book, you will know that they made a major change to the plot, and I think they lost out on an opportunity to be more creative and original. This part of the movie was pretty much, “The Overlook Hotel Part II.” Good idea if you liked “The Shining”, but a total departure from the book, “Doctor Sleep.”
In changing the ending, they also eliminated one of the best characters in the book, Abra’s great-grandmother, Momo. She played a major role in the book, and in the movie, she doesn’t even appear; she gets mentioned in passing. Momo would have been an awesome addition to the movie, played by somebody like Olympia Dukakis.
And there’s a bad scene where the True Knot is savaging one of their victims, which just didn’t need to be as explicitly violent. They could have showed him being tied down and then the screen could have faded to black or something.
If I hadn’t read the book, I might give this movie a B-. Since I did read the book, and liked the book better, I’m giving it a C.
