A few things that bothered me...
I just saw the movie tonight and although I thought it was good, I felt there were a few things that should have been added or changed.
The first thing that kinda bothered me was in this remake, the writers didn't really seem to understand the character of Ariel. In the original, the whole point of her rebellion was to help her forget about her brother's death in hopes that everyone else (her father) would too. That's why they never mention his death until the middle of the film. Her brother's death wasn't the point of the movie. In this remake, Ariel was only interested in talking about it which doesn't make sense because if you are trying to get people to move on, why bring it up constantly. I'm not saying that's the best way to handle situations like that but the whole reason they abolished the right to dance was cause he died. If you know that, DON'T KEEP MENTIONING THAT FACT! Overall she seemed more emotional in this remake and it seems to me that her character's choice of rebellion would have been better suited for someone with a lot of anger in them. Like she had in the original. I just think they played her brothers death more than they should have.
The second thing that bothered me was they (in my opinion) left out an important scene in the remake which was the book burning scene after Ariel and Rev. Moore have their fight in the church. To me, that was when Rev. Moore started seeing the kids point of view. Especially the line where he says "Satan is not in these books, he's in your heart." That was really a big turning point in his decision to let them have the dance because that's when he started to realize that his laws were getting out of control. He started to realize that it's not the music you listen to, or the books you read that lead you to have sex, drink or do drugs. It's out there no matter what. The point is you have to trust your kids and hope that they have understood what you have taught them about right and wrong. The remake didn't really have that stand out turning point that made the Reverend really question if his laws were the right way to go about it.
Those were the only 2 things that bugged me the most. The dancing was overall good but I felt they spent too much time perfecting it that it looks too choreographed. In the original it was more free. It wasn't about how well or provocative you could dance, it was just about being able to dance. But maybe that has to do with the changing of the times. Everything is more extreme these days. Anyone one else feel the same way?