Monday, June 3, 2013

And The Long-Awaited Review...

Well!
No, my Emma review is not done yet.
But my TSP81 review is HERE!!
However, before I relieve you curiosity as to how I felt about TSP81, I have a few updates.  A lot of things have happened over the weekend!
First of all, I joined the June Crusade over at Scribblings of My Pen and Tappings of My Keyboard, a lovely blog written by Anne-girl.  My partner is VK and her blog is here.  We have to critique each other's work, write guest posts on each other's blogs, and write 15 comments per week on various blogs.
I haven't told you I'm a writer yet, have I?  Well, I am.  I've been writing basically since Kindergarten, but I've been really sort of seriously been doing it since 4th grade.  I'm also a bit of a poet.  :D
Which brings me to my review!
Since the storyline of the movie is rather different from the storyline of the book, please note that this is NOT a review of the book.  Someday I'll do a review of each of the Scarlet Pimpernel books.  For now...well, maybe tomorrow I'll do one.  ;)
I'm going to assume that people who read this blog already know the storyline, so I'm not going to do a long, detailed synopsis of the movie.  I'll just describe what I like (YES!) about the movie, and what I didn't like (...drawing a blank here...).
First off, since Sir Percy Blakeney (who is-SPOILER- The Scarlet Pimpernel.  If you didn't know that, you shouldn't be reading this.  You know now.  There will be many spoilers in this review, so if you haven't watched the movie and don't want to know what happens until you've watched it, this is NOT the review to read.) is the most important character, let me just say that ANTHONY ANDREWS DID A MARVELOUS, FANTASTIC, WONDERFUL JOB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, you may have gathered that I like TSP81.  In fact, let me make a statement here:
While the Jane Austen books are my favorite classics, while The Phantom of the Opera is my favorite musical based on a classic (although I haven't seen Les Mis yet), The Scarlet Pimpernel (from 1981, of course!) is my favorite movie adaptation of a classic.
Really, what can I say?
I loved this movie.  Anthony Andrews' "Sink me!" was actually not in the book, but really...
I'm usually a stickler for the books.  If the movie doesn't stick (hah! Pun unintended.) to the plot and characters of the book, I'm against it.  "Go books!" is my battle cry.  ;)
This movie deviated from the plot a lot more than some of my least-favorite movies did- but I liked it so much better!  It combined two books, added other elements that weren't in the TSP series in the first place, and I loved it!  How fickle is the human mind...
Now, that was what my "ranting mood" is all about.  All-caps, random tangents, and complete randomness.
But I will try to pull myself together and write a coherent review.
I had already read many spoiler-full reviews, so I already knew what was going to happen, but still...wow.  I was still panting and staring wide-eyed at the screen, and if my siblings hadn't been in bed, I would have been screaming at the TV.  When Percy fell into the trap, I immediately joined the Down With Armand! Club, but of course I had to leave it at the end because Percy forgave him.  .
I AM a Leaguette after all.  ;)
 At the end, my heart pulled a Wicked Witch of the West number and melted even without water.  ;)
I think that there have actually been enough reviews praising this movie (not that there can EVER be enough, in my opinion, but whatever...) so I'm just going to list the few nitpicks I have and leave it at that.  I'm a bit tired right now and can't write a review that's actually enjoyable to read and does full justice to TSP.
So without further ado...
My nitpicks.
1.  What was with the Armand/whatever the girl's name was living together??  We easily fast-forwarded those scenes, but really...did they HAVE to put that in there?  It wasn't in the book, by the way.  Hah.
2.  Small nitpick that almost everyone points out- can't the French characters have French accents??
Those are pretty much the only ones.  I really like the movie, as I've already stated at least five times.

I apologize for this completely inadequate review, but hopefully I'll be able to make the next one better.

Notes: So far, my blog has been lacking pictures, so I'm going to do a post tomorrow just on pictures.  I'll just put a long list of screencaps, paintings, and any other pictures related to classic things.  There WILL be captions, some of which are supposed to be funny.  :D
Please comment as often as possible!  I like to hear what readers are thinking!
-Miss Jane Bennet

1 comment:

Miss Elliot said...

SQUEEEEEEEEEE I LOVE TSP!!!!
Oops, that was an accident. :-)
But really, I agreed with you on EVERYTHING. The Armand and Louise thing was pretty bad in general. But the rest of the movie...oh, oh, I need to end this comment before I get the 'watch TSP again RIGHT NOW' feeling- and it's already past my bedtime.