The Mist Kinda Sucked... and I'll Tell You Why

Dear Blog,

I went to see the Mist with my father tonight. It is a movie adaptation of a Stephen King novella I particularly enjoy. It was done by the writer/director of the Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile. Hell, I thought that at least with him, Frank Darabont, that he couldn't fuck up too bad. Well, I was kind of wrong. The whole thing was pretty decent once you add in everything. I'd give like a 6.5 out of 10 or some shit like that. So, here's the good stuff first. It was mostly very faithful to the book and the stuff it skipped or sped up didn't detract from the story (for the most part, but I'll deal with that in just a second). It was shot very well and all the creatures looked fantastic. The death and gore wasn't overdone and the dialog was pretty good and realistic for the most part. Also, most of the principle actors did great jobs and were cast wonderfully. However, there were some major problems. The main male lead, Thomas Jane, is an action hero person. He played the Punisher. He cannot be nuanced. Here, the character needed to be action-esque but not so bland that he couldn't emote without people laughing. He didn't do a bad job just a mediocre one, especially towards the end. Oh my fucking God, the end of this movie pissed me the hell off. Darabont, up on his high fucking throne felt like he needed to change the perfectly fine open-ended ending that Mr. King put at the end of his fine novella. In the end, Darabont decides to throw in some really depressing, hopeless Twilight Zone shit. Which I usually don't mind but it's not how the real book ends and the ending didn't need to be changed. Just because it's a horror movie doesn't mean it needs to end hopelessly. For God's sake, you had enough balls to stick to the book most of the time, not play up the gore too much, give it some actual psychological tension, and make it actually as long as it needed to be. But, you don't have the balls to end it with the correct ending. If it's the studios fault then fuck the studios. But if it's Darabont's fault then fuck him. So, it pissed me off some but it wasn't terrible. Certainly better than most horror bullshit they put on the screen most of these days. I'm glad a satiated my curiosity but I got myself seriously pissed off in the process.

Yours,
B Morgz