Why It's Awful: Danny Boyle's disappointing adaptation of Alex Garland's novel boasts the slick style audiences expect from the director, but is evidently engineered less to be faithful to the novel and more to simply milk Leonardo DiCaprio's box office appeal. DiCaprio spends a good portion of the film shirtless, and numerous sex scenes which didn't appear in the novel are thrown in just to get more girls in the cinema (it worked, the movie made $154 million). In addition, DiCaprio's character is British in the original novel rather than American, the ending is totally different (though an alternate ending on the DVD is more faithful), and well, that trippy video game scene is just the worst. The Remake: Cast a likeable actor who nevertheless isn't tailored quite so much to the teenage girl demographic, keep fiercely faithful to the novel, and don't try any needlessly surreal flourishes. Basically, keep the harder edge and drop the more sentimental, sexy treatment that came before. Sadly, the original movie did well enough that many (namely those who haven't read the book or have no idea it exists) will simply ask, "Why fix what isn't broken?"
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
