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The problem with the IT films is that you tell they did Part 1 as stand alone as possible since they weren't sure if they'd get a sequel leaving the adult part without the foundation it really needed
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Jun 25, 2022 07:45
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They should have adapted it as a trilogy with the middle part being an anthology film of the interludes with a framing story about librarian Mike piecing together the history of Derry
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Jun 25, 2022 07:49
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IT is a novel that cries out for a 10 part series made for adults. I wish they'd stuck with the original time periods in the book, too, but that's maybe nostalgia for me. I finished reading Mr Mercedes a few days ago and quite enjoyed it. Are Finders Keepers and End of Watch worth a read?
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Jun 29, 2022 10:04
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For what it's worth, I enjoyed Finders Keepers, but I found End Of Watch a slog, and (whisper it) skimmed a little towards the end.
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Jun 29, 2022 10:13
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WattsvilleBlues posted:IT is a novel that cries out for a 10 part series made for adults. I wish they'd stuck with the original time periods in the book, too, but that's maybe nostalgia for me. First one was great, Second was okay, then there was something thrown in at the very end that ruined it for me, and ruined the third one as well. Third was bad.
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Jun 29, 2022 20:47
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WattsvilleBlues posted:IT is a novel that cries out for a 10 part series made for adults. I wish they'd stuck with the original time periods in the book, too, but that's maybe nostalgia for me. I recently listened to the audiobooks for Mr. Mercedes/Finders Keepers/End of Watch - and then gave Outsider a second listen and listened to If It Bleeds for the first time; I think that's all the Holly Gibney stuff, am I missing anything? As for how they were, if you enjoyed Mr. Mercedes then I think you'll enjoy Finders Keepers and End of Watch - Mr Mercedes is definitely a little bit better than the other two, but not by some tremendous amount. Maybe if I'd read each book a few years apart I'd feel differently, but binging all three of them, I really think the variability in quality is a bit exaggerated. The reason why people trash the third one and the end of the second (like the above poster) is because (very minor spoiler) there is a slightly supernatural element introduced at the end of the second book that is more or less the subject of the third, and before that point the series had mostly stood out in King's oeuvre specifically because it didn't have any supernatural aspects. I don't mind that stuff at all so it was fine with me. I actually enjoyed the third book, End of Watch, the most out of the three - even though the first one is probably a better and more complete story in and of itself. The second one (Finders Keepers) is sort of the odd man out and the weakest of the three for me, but it's still a pretty fun yarn and totally on par with the other two - for the most part. kaworu fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jun 29, 2022 |
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Jun 29, 2022 22:21
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kaworu posted:
I actually have pdfs of 2014 and 2016 drafts of the Fukanaga/Palmer IT scripts. I downloaded them back when the first film was out in theaters, and I never read them. PM me with your email address and I will send them to you. e: Actually others might want to read them, so I just shared them on google docs. 2014: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0I2q4e0cyRPd3ZYVVU2UmxEZ1U/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-zZ-Md8dxNjtCjBk-3sCkzg 2016: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0I2q4e0cyRPZnBjc0FPeHpVRjQ/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-iFOEcJb26y00UfwQemhxXQ MrMojok fucked around with this message at 01:05 on Jun 30, 2022 |
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Jun 30, 2022 01:00
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MrMojok posted:I actually have pdfs of 2014 and 2016 drafts of the Fukanaga/Palmer IT scripts. Holy poo poo! Thanks so much for sharing this, you totally made my day. About a third of the way through the 2014 draft and the differences/similarities are definitely interesting, they actually kept quite a bit of it (I think) but the final film was most definitely, uh, toned down a bit from what I'm reading here. In general this draft feels a lot more... "Stephen King-ish" both in that I think it's more referential to the mythology of the book and entrenched in that, and it also has that sort of sickly gross feeling that the creepiest parts of the book gave me, much moreso than the film we ultimately got.
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Jun 30, 2022 02:11
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MrMojok posted:I actually have pdfs of 2014 and 2016 drafts of the Fukanaga/Palmer IT scripts. hell yeah, thanks for sharing
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Jun 30, 2022 05:09
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69% through 11/22/63 (nice) and man, I do not think I could have seen Sadie’s ex-husband coming back and assaulting her as the universe’s attempt to stop the main character’s attempt to learn what was probably important information about the assassination and her ending up disfigured and vulnerable. …has this whole Dallas thing been the universe’s attempt to preserve the timeline? Probably never getting an answer to that! Regardless, this has been a pretty good read but waaay more of a slow burn than I expected, but King is generally good at character writing so I can’t complain that’s what I got way more of than expected.
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Jul 2, 2022 14:31
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Last Celebration posted:69% through 11/22/63 (nice) and man, I do not think I could have seen Sadie’s ex-husband coming back and assaulting her as the universe’s attempt to stop the main character’s attempt to learn what was probably important information about the assassination and her ending up disfigured and vulnerable. It's a really good book but somewhere around the 50 or 60 percent mark it really hits a long slow spot. I remember skimming over large portions of it. Fortunately, it picks up again. Also, if I remember right, I think you will get your answers. I don't remember anything being real ambiguous or completely unanswered.
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Jul 2, 2022 15:01
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Yeah, 11/22/63 is great fun but it really drags during the section after the main character gets to Texas and before the main action with Oswald really begins.. As I recall it's mostly the chapter "Sadie and the General" that's really tiresome. Kind of a shame too because some slightly more efficient editing could have brought that book from being "pretty good" to "pretty great", I think. The opening exposition with Al and the time portal in a Lisbon Falls diner is fantastic, classic Stephen King. Then there's the Derry section, which I think is extremely fun and enjoyable for any King fan, as well as being quite well-paced. And then it all just comes to a screeching halt and we get this interminable time in Texas with him teaching High School and following George de Mohrenschildt and it's just not especially interesting or engaging. It's even tougher on audiobook where you can't really scan quickly through a boring section and still get the main thrust of the action.
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Jul 2, 2022 16:50
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kaworu posted:Yeah, 11/22/63 is great fun but it really drags during the section after the main character gets to Texas and before the main action with Oswald really begins.. As I recall it's mostly the chapter "Sadie and the General" that's really tiresome. That was the part, yes, and it seemed to go on for quite a while. Like 15% of the whole book or something close to that where absolutely nothing of consequence or much interest really happens at all. I guess King's idea was to establish the love interest in the alternate timeline to try and build the stakes but holy poo poo was it boring and, worse, the story really didn't even need that element IMO. And if it did or you really had to have it or wanted that, probably 5 or 10 pages might have sufficed.
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Jul 2, 2022 17:13
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The miniseries of the book is a good watch. I haven't read the book so I don't know how it compares. What's the Mr Mercedes show like?
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Jul 2, 2022 17:48
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BiggerBoat posted:It's a really good book but somewhere around the 50 or 60 percent mark it really hits a long slow spot. I remember skimming over large portions of it. Fortunately, it picks up again. You sure were right when you said it “picks up”, I was just expecting stuff to kinda go towards near the assassination date at which point poo poo gets real, not the MC gets hosed aaalll the way up by goons who get wise to his gambling “luck” to the point where he not only almost dies but months pass by in a blur because of his brain damage. I’m kinda wondering how this is gonna even end because King already did the thing he loves to do and spoiled that the assassination still happens but maybe that’s a double fakeout!
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Jul 3, 2022 16:45
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Last Celebration posted:You sure were right when you said it “picks up”, I was just expecting stuff to kinda go towards near the assassination date at which point poo poo gets real, not the MC gets hosed aaalll the way up by goons who get wise to his gambling “luck” to the point where he not only almost dies but months pass by in a blur because of his brain damage. The book absolutely sticks the landing
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Jul 3, 2022 21:45
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BiggerBoat posted:The book absolutely sticks the landing We can thank Joe for that
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Jul 4, 2022 15:03
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I've got a few Stephen King books I'm selling in this thread. Eight first editions, though nothing particularly rare. Some other horror authors in there too. https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=4005650 I'll be adding more tomorrow as I go through another bookcase.
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Jul 6, 2022 03:05
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Finished 11/22/63. that was just a good King (I guess Joe rather than Stephen) ending, I’m glad Sadie got a good ending because I sure expected her to bite it. The bad timeline doesn’t add up 1:1 with the Bachman books’ dystopian futures but it still feels adjacent.
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Jul 6, 2022 03:12
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Agree it was refreshing to see King stick a landing for a change. I didn't know Joe had a hand in it. I honestly think King writes himself into a corner a lot of times. By his own admission, he doesn't use outlines and in his book "On Writing" talks a lot about following the characters on a journey. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing in and of itself because a lot of times during the creative process an artist can get new ideas along the way but I think his particular process puts him in situations where he's either bored with the story or genuinely has no idea how to write himself out of the box he built. So we got a lot of interdeminsional supernatural alien poo poo where, often, it's really not needed. It's a weird word to use for such a prolific writer but it's kind of "lazy" sometimes. Or at least "cheap" A cop out.
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Jul 6, 2022 04:17
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Honestly with what King’s said before it mostly just feels he just writes what naturally comes out and refines it as a writer and stuff sometimes stops coming out at the endgame unless it’s a novella/short story*, but I’ve never read On Writing. At least that’s how it seems with his introduction to ‘Salem’s Lot and Paul’s conversations with Annie that even he doesn’t know how Misery’s Return is gonna turn out, which I figured was drawing from personal experience.
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Jul 6, 2022 06:49
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King said that 11.22.63 was the only novel he actually planned out in the traditional sense, since he knew where he wanted the story to go. Anyone else heard that?
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Jul 6, 2022 11:27
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Yep, I remember hearing that in an interview from around the time it was released - that he did a ton of research for it and had the overall concept for the ending (that someone goes back to save Kennedy with the best of intentions only to return to the altered future and find it totally hosed up and destroyed as a result of his meddling) from the moment he started writing the book. Which definitely is not always the case with the books he writes. I'm generally of the opinion that the first third or so of pretty much any novel King writes is the best part of it. I think he excels the most when he's fleshing out settings and characters along with laying intriguing and suspenseful clues for whatever main conflict/concept the book is dealing with. Where I often get bored with his books is when he draws out that actual main conflict across some extremely short span of time... He can sometimes make this work with extensive flashbacks to break up the main action, like in IT. But he can also fail with the exact same approach, like in Dreamcatcher which I found extremely tedious at times, albeit occasionally enjoyable because it was like ALL the King tropes turned unapologetically up to 11.
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Jul 6, 2022 16:26
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kaworu posted:Yep, I remember hearing that in an interview from around the time it was released - that he did a ton of research for it and had the overall concept for the ending (that someone goes back to save Kennedy with the best of intentions only to return to the altered future and find it totally hosed up and destroyed as a result of his meddling) from the moment he started writing the book. Which definitely is not always the case with the books he writes. Did he credit the general idea to Red Dwarf Season 7 Episode 1, Tikka to Ride?
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Jul 6, 2022 21:10
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kaworu posted:
Agree he's real good at sinking those hooks in and get you turning pages pretty much right from the outset. But then it's an alien or an interdimensional painting or a monster or some poo poo. Even Cell, one of his worst books IMO, was a real banger for the first 1/4 of it or so but I've never read a book that got so consistently and progressively worse with pretty much every page. I think that's partly why his short stories and novellas are generally so well regarded; because by the time to get to the end of it, if it sucks, there's a brand new one right there and most of them don't have a ton of things to really tie up. They're more focused in that regard and tighter practically by definition. 11/23/63 was weird in that it started great, died for about 20% of it at the half way mark and then really picked up again. Which kind of makes sense based on what you guys posted. It's like he started to meander and then remembered he had the ending figured out and went "better get to that thing I had planned"
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Jul 7, 2022 05:12
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Not sure why Dreamcatcher gets all this hate, I devoured that book. Sure it’s completely over the top and post accodent King was probably high as a kite while writing it but I loved it regardless.
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Jul 7, 2022 09:15
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I'm a Dreamcatcher apologist, too. It's just ridiculous and I can't hate it.
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Jul 7, 2022 23:18
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Gravity Cant Apple posted:I'm a Dreamcatcher apologist, too. It's just ridiculous and I can't hate it. I feel this way about the Regulators/Desperation books, they've stuck in my head for 25 years so there's something there, I just can't tell you what it is.
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Jul 8, 2022 18:47
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Oh yeah those books both slap, too. And every time I'm halfway through shaving I think about how Collie spends half of the Regulators looking crazy with a half-shaved face because the poo poo went down while he was in the middle of it and what if there was a fire or something and that happened to me.
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Jul 8, 2022 22:36
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People don't like Desperation? That book whips.
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Jul 8, 2022 23:08
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I think most people like Desperation and hate The Regulators.
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Jul 8, 2022 23:20
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We've been over this and the conclusion to draw is people prefer the one they read first. I read Desperation first and I loved it. Tak! (Regulators was good, too.)
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Jul 8, 2022 23:23
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I didn't want to give the indication that I disliked Dreamcatcher - like I said, it's more that it's insanely over the top and, well... like I said, it's all the SK tropes turned up to their absolute maximum. Magical retard? Check. Main character with alcoholism? Check. Car accidents central to storyline? Check. Endless scatological references? Check. Maine setting, school-age bullying, kids with psychic ability, reference to the number 19, prominent use of classic rock, self-referential to other King works? Check, check, check and a few more checks. I mean, if you're any sort of legit King fan (or 'constant reader') then I feel like it's tough not to enjoy Dreamcatcher. But I also feel wrong thinking if it as some sort of great book, or a central/important part of King's oeuvre. It's fun, and pulpy, and highly readable - but also totally loving out there and whacked-out crazy, with sections and parts that I have to think would totally weird out/gross out most anyone who wasn't already very familiar with, and thus inured to, some of King's stranger proclivities.
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Jul 8, 2022 23:24
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I read Dreamcatcher once and that was more than enough. Picked up Billy Summers and that was a good read, until it got a bit rapey, and then quite uncomfortable reading towards the end. Stop being weird, Stephen!
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Jul 8, 2022 23:32
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I'm a huge fan of Regulators and The Tommyknockers for more-maligned King books, the latter especially. Liked it as a teen then loved it when I did a reread 15 years later, there's some Kind books that just really stick with me and get me immersed in the story and that's way up there for sure. I missed Dreamcatcher growing up but that's on the list for sure. I've just done a relisten of Pet Semetary (again, first time in 15+ years) and man that book hits differently when you're more grown up, just incredibly bleak. Extremely good narration for the audibook from Michael C. Hall too, I love the more comfy settlint in/meeting the neighbour early portions of the book that King is always so good at writing.
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Jul 9, 2022 02:17
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I have eaten only campbells spaghetti-os and meatballs mixed with hamburger ever since reading those books, like Tak It changed my life
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Jul 9, 2022 02:22
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My ex (and I) really enjoyed Lisey's Story. Maybe having an SO that's dead appealed to her?
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Jul 9, 2022 02:39
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Toast King posted:I'm a huge fan of Regulators and The Tommyknockers for more-maligned King books, the latter especially. Liked it as a teen then loved it when I did a reread 15 years later, there's some Kind books that just really stick with me and get me immersed in the story and that's way up there for sure. . The Hilly/Grandpa stuff in Tommyknockers is really up there among King's best stuff imo.
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Jul 9, 2022 02:50
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Desperation started off great and then went off the rails around half way through, at least for me. I think it would have been better if it had just been the psycho cop with a screw loose who thought he was possessed by the devil or some poo poo set in a podunk desert town in the middle of loving nowhere instead of all the Tak/demon poo poo in the mines or however that turned out. Been a good minute since I read it but I distinctly recall getting sucked in at the beginning and then checking out towards the end. The Regulators was just ridiculous and silly from the get go and I never finished it.
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Jul 9, 2022 03:12
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Read The Dead zone. Pretty good, but it felt very disjointed. The police story and then a political one. Made me want to reread "It coulnd't happen here". The doctor's mother scene is very good. The Carrie reference was unexpected. I never knew the simpsons episode was a reference to something,. The movie is okay, suffers from the same thing as the book. Walken is great. 1/3 through firestarter, some action earlier than i expected, always welcome.
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Jul 9, 2022 05:03
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