Best and Worst LitFlix 2014

Yesterday David posted his list for the Comic Litflix of 2014 and today I am posting mine. Unfortunately during this year we missed out on seeing some of the movies, in the end I think it is mostly my movies. At the same time we did still see quite a few LitFlix’s this year. The Hobbit is still left to be seen and we are actually having that done as a guest post by Gene’O, who actually did a series on Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. This will actually give you three separate perspectives on the movies and how they have done dealing with the book. Obviously then it is not making this list, but from everything I heard so far I don’t know that it would have anyway.

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Vampire Academy as TV Series

Vampire Academy Book Cover from the Penguin.com

As I mentioned in my Litflix exploring the Vampire Academy movie and books someone mentioned that the quality of the movie reminded them of a CW tv show. This in turn got me thinking about the fact that, yes, the story being told in the books probably would be better done as a CW TV show or some TV mini series akin Sleepy Hollow where you do not run the normal 24 episode season. You would have the time to flesh out the story that needs to be and have the build up that needs to happen and have the time to really flesh out these new ideas that you are presenting. Now obviously this could be the thought with almost any book series that they turn in to movies, but I do not know if Harry Potter would have worked as well in a TV show format. There is a lot that they had to cut out, but I think they were able to keep the main story in tact and they were dealing with some fundamentals that people already recognized of wizards and magic in general.

What I am going to present is an outline of how each season would progress leading up to the ultimate moment wherever that might be and how you might transition in to the next season. Now to do this there will be major spoilers, so if you think you want to read the books at all you do not want to continue on, if you do not care then enjoy my little thought exercise. Now there are too many details to give a complete description of each season, so I just try and hit the major points. It is an interesting exercise to go through because it makes you think about the driving force of the book series. One of the most interesting things that I realized about the story is that there are issues or points made in the first book that do not come to full fruition until the last book. It is these little details though that make the series so much fun to read and also why a TV series might have worked better. When you have those ideas they need time to develop and I do not know that a two hour movie is enough time.  (Major spoilers for the entire Vampire Academy Series after the jump.)

Failure to Launch (A Franchise)

I read a great article over on We Minored in Film recently about last weekend’s boxoffice, with three bigger name sorts of releases coming out. One was The Lego Movie – our Valentine’s Day plan – and another was The Monuments Men, delayed and kind of out of Oscars contention because of it. But the third we saw last weekend, as you may know from Holly’s LitFlix on the subject. We saw Vampire Academy.

I don’t see much reason to mess with Kelly Konda’s review and analysis, but instead want to say that it got me thinking. He lists a number of other genre young adult adaptations that have come out lately, and which have not done that well. Last year, and into this year now, has seen these attempts at starting up a franchise and trying to make the sort of money that the Twilight or Harry Potter series made. Yet the movies that did well last year weren’t the first in their franchise: they were the second, with Catching Fire and Percy Jackson.

And it’s too soon to know what will happen with some of these franchises: will they continue on with Ender’s Game? Vampire Academy ended with a lead-in to the later books. Beautiful Creatures? City of Bones? But while it’s too soon to know about these movies, there are some more recently – but far enough back – that we can be pretty sure they completely failed to spin off the rest of their series, failed to launch a franchise. So here’s five stories that failed to keep going!

Vampire Academy, a Litflix

David and I went and saw Vampire Academy this weekend. I have personally been looking forward to it because I really enjoyed the books. It is great because it created a new mythology and had two strong female leads. It is a young adult series, but it still dealt with a lot of bigger issues, politics, fate, destiny, growing up, etc, at the same time it takes the whole series to get to that point. The movie just covers the first part of the series and it can be difficult to go through a whole new mythology and structure while also telling a decent story.

The movie did a good job at telling the basics of the story in the book. The problem that kind of occurred is the fact that they seemed to explain things after the fact instead of as they were going along, which ended up being a bit confusing at points. In some ways they followed the book too closely as the reveals in the book happen over a long period of time and you keep wondering what is happening. In the movie it just seems too much like a red herring and trying to mislead the watcher.

Lots Going On… But Where’s The Post?

Sorry, this evening got a bit away from me. When I say there’s lots going on, I mean it! Let’s consider a few things:

• The phenomenal success of The Lego Movie. We’re probably not going to see it until this weekend, so no spoilers!
• We saw Vampire Academy this last weekend, so be expecting a LitFlix on that soon!
• I beat Halo 3 finally today, so expect my years-belated thoughts on that subject.
• Lightning Returns comes out tomorrow. We have that preordered, along with the guide, so it’s time to start watching the mailbox like a hawk. Also, sorry for me stating the release date wrong a few times… I swear I saw the 4th somewhere, and I apparently committed that to memory.
• Holly and I got the opportunity to read The Killing Joke, so I’m sure one of us will do a review of that!
• We now have all of this season of Sherlock – and haven’t watched any of it! The time to catch up is now!

I have a lot of post ideas, plenty to keep me busy for a few weeks – and Holly likewise! Nonetheless, I think I am aiming for sleep over doing much of a post tonight. So, I wanted to share one little bit of media we consumed today – and with a particular focus on one amazing and frightening moment.