They removed the antagonist of the book from the movie. I was shocked. I mean I thought the book was stupid and incredibly full of trite phrases, but I had to admit that it still had a better plot than the movie. Mainly due to the fact that the movie followed no discernible plot and all the actions were completely unmotivated by reality. Why was the gov’t after him? No apparent reason. He did not get shot in the head so why did he have the wicked retharded memory loss? No real justification. All in all it was bewildering and unnecessarily complicated. And I was horrified (yes horrified) because Matt Damon is always seeming (to me) to be an actor who really, really is in it for the acting. The good scripts, plots, direction, etc. But in this he has deeply failed me. Then again All the Pretty Horses was pretty godawful too. (but then what do you expect from something billy bob thornton is involved in.) Admittedly however, MD looked fantastic. With the buffness and the sexy shirts and the kung fu kicking action. And Franka Potente is almost too adorable for words when she does that little tentative smiling thing with half her mouth before it blooms into this big smile that makes you smile back at her. Love that girl. Love her. (for those of you who liked Run Lola Run/Franka be sure to see The Princess and the Warrior because it is great and she is super sweet in it.)
Posted by michele at May 17, 2002 12:00 PMI thought the gov't was after him because he used to be one of their agents and he knew all their secrets? wasn't it like, they sent him on a secret mission and then since they didn't know he lost his memory, it just looked to them like he was defecting? and since no one was supposed to know about his mission etc., they sent the other assassins after him. right?
Posted by: didofoot on July 15, 2002 11:35 AMwell yeah if you want to get TECHNICAL about it, it had a plot. :P
i think mainly i was just disturbed by the fact that he hadn't done anything in the movie other than disappearing. and they decided that therefore he had to be killed. they just decided it so quickly in the very beggining without informing the audience about much of anything to do with it (his not killing the man on the boat...which mind you was not in the book.) and it's just that in the book, the gov't didn't try to kill him until AFTER they thought he had killed some high up intelligence guys and his own brother. it just made more sense in the book is all. the not even trying to find out what had happened to him was kind of stupid on the gov't's part and the whole conclusion where they're like, "oh well we'll just bury this. never happened." so dumb. heh. whatever.
Posted by: michele on July 15, 2002 12:49 PMI know! What's up with that? "Well the coverup didn't work, so we'll just kill this prominant gov't offical who flubbed it."
"But sir, how will we cover THAT up?"
"That's for the sequel to deal with, soldier."
So bloody stupid. But I will forgive MD anything if he keeps working out like that. Damn damn b'damn damn.
Posted by: didofoot on July 15, 2002 01:05 PM