Warning: contains spoilers.
This was a terrible adaptation of a classic novel.The directing was so bad that my wife who had never read the novel had a hard time following story despite the fact that she has a high IQ.
I can certainly understand that changes have to be made when you're creating a screenplay from a novel. What I can't understand is the rationale behind completely changing the dominant philosophy of the original novel.For those of you who have not read the novel, the screenwriters have needlessly demonized the overlords. The overlords were not responsible for changing the children. That was going to happen as a cataclysmic evolutionary event (Clark's words) whether the overlords came or not. They were merely following orders from the over mind not to allow this change to destroy humanity or damage the over mind.
The overlords did not sterilize anyone in the novel. They also did not cause the children to leave. The children left on their own volition.And it was the children who destroyed Earth in the end, not the overlords.
The overlords home planet did not look like hell.And no one in the novel hated the overlords. Most realized by the end that the overlords were merely safeguarding an evolutionary event, and were doing so under orders. In fact, sympathy was expressed for the overlords because they could not evolve in the way humanity was.
Finally, the movie's final message was a sad and bitter one: the end of humanity mostly aided by the overlords. In contrast, while the novel expresses a bit of sadness for the end of humanity, our evolutionary descendants are seen as joining a vast and powerful over mind which controls most of our galaxy.
I was so looking forward to this TV series and was so bitterly disappointed in it. And as someone else on this message board commented, there were far too many commercials. I understand that money has to be made but this should be balanced with some consideration for the viewer.
This was a terrible adaptation of a classic novel.The directing was so bad that my wife who had never read the novel had a hard time following story despite the fact that she has a high IQ.
I can certainly understand that changes have to be made when you're creating a screenplay from a novel. What I can't understand is the rationale behind completely changing the dominant philosophy of the original novel.For those of you who have not read the novel, the screenwriters have needlessly demonized the overlords. The overlords were not responsible for changing the children. That was going to happen as a cataclysmic evolutionary event (Clark's words) whether the overlords came or not. They were merely following orders from the over mind not to allow this change to destroy humanity or damage the over mind.
The overlords did not sterilize anyone in the novel. They also did not cause the children to leave. The children left on their own volition.And it was the children who destroyed Earth in the end, not the overlords.
The overlords home planet did not look like hell.And no one in the novel hated the overlords. Most realized by the end that the overlords were merely safeguarding an evolutionary event, and were doing so under orders. In fact, sympathy was expressed for the overlords because they could not evolve in the way humanity was.
Finally, the movie's final message was a sad and bitter one: the end of humanity mostly aided by the overlords. In contrast, while the novel expresses a bit of sadness for the end of humanity, our evolutionary descendants are seen as joining a vast and powerful over mind which controls most of our galaxy.
I was so looking forward to this TV series and was so bitterly disappointed in it. And as someone else on this message board commented, there were far too many commercials. I understand that money has to be made but this should be balanced with some consideration for the viewer.