MovieChat Forums > Great Expectations (1998) Discussion > Terrible movie.

Terrible movie.

posted 18 years ago by the_world_is_flat
42 replies | jump to latest

Do yourself a favor and read the book. This movie poorly adapted from an amazing book. It hacks and slashes everything to make it sexier and 'more appealing.' The green theme is just a poor attempt at trying to be symbolic. Wow. They painted everything green. Amazing. I'm sure it took a lot of effort. And the part with Magwitch?! What the hell?! Where's the character development?! In the book, there's more time for Pip to realize that Magwitch isn't just a convict. In the movie, everything's short and sweet. Read the book, people. It's much better than this crap.

[–] casey-133 17 years ago

Wow, I can't believe how many people in this thread don't realize this is an attempt to make a MODERN adaptation of the basic story.

Sounds like a lot of you are just ticked you had to read this book for school and wanted to watch Gwen and Ethan read it to you word for word instead. The book is a classic and this film is quite good. They are separate and individual works of art.

[–] lotsofwordz 17 years ago

The basic story is that there are particular rigid class divisions. Anyone who doesn't understand that hasn't understood the basic story. Clearly, the producer and director of this waste of film stock have not.

[–] f-main 17 years ago

I'm a huge Alfonso fan but I felt the pacing in this film was terrible and the narration felt to intrusive. I wanted to rate it higher, but I just couldn't. I hardly have elitist taste, some of the films I like are shunned by the movie going majority, but this movie lacked emotion and substance. I don't think it was a problem of an adaptation, it just lacked power.

I like the David Lean version better, far more entertaining.

[–] Johnny_cake 17 years ago

The main flaw of the movie is that Pip makes his way with his art, whereas in the book, it is of utmost importance to the entire arc of the story that he does NOT provide his own way while still having "great expectations."

[–] Unknownian 13 years ago

I never read the book. I've heard it was a great book. I don't read many books; however, I watch a whole lot of movies. This is one of my all time favorites and perhaps one of the best motion pictures ever made.
End of Story.

[–] richnieh 12 years ago

I never found that a novel can be adapt into a movie. The movie can only describe the them but 2 hours of motion story telling is just simply not enough.

TV series, maybe. Hardly a movie.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] axstarxlitxsky 11 years ago

Well said! Great expectations is one of my favourite books. I fell in love with it as a child and read at least once a year.

I realise that when you watch adaptations, you expect some changes and some artistic licence, but this film is awful. Everything is changed except the bare bones of the story. And the scenes with the young Estella and Finn (by the way, why change his name?!) are creepy. I get that Finn would be mesmerised by her, but we don't need to sexualise a little girl to understand that Finn is drawn to her.

A sad adaptation of a brilliant book. Everyone needs to read the book. You're missing so much if you don't.