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Merry Christmas, Have Some Miserables
Dec. 26th, 2012 03:43 pmThere was no waiting in the Noodle household: we saw Les Miserables yesterday afternoon.
As usual, my 'review' is going to make it sound like I didn't like it. I actually liked about 90% of it; the problem was that the other 10% made the 90% really hard to watch.
So, for the record, here is a list of things I love about Tom Hooper's Les Mis:
- The new orchestrations – OMG the new orchestrations – I love them and want to re-record the orchestra retroactively on my London Cast album, like, right now.
- Production design in general
- The vast majority of the acting
- The vast majority of the casting
- The location design around the ABC Café
- The lyrics changes and additions (and I don't like change usually, especially in something so close to my heart), especially ones that brought in more historical perspective and/or moments from the book.* The new verse in Gavroche's solo renders my historical costume post more or less irrelevant! Thanks, Gavroche!
- I actually liked the new song, which was a big surprise because I never like the new songs they put in old musicals. I thought it came at a good moment in the story and did a useful job of adding a dimension to Valjean's character arc, giving us a moment to let things gel before diving into a new pool, and wasn't bad musically either.
- The slight modifications to the timeline in the first half of the movie
- Foreshadowing
- Little things subtly but deliberately placed within the frame which reflect or comment upon the scene
*I have not read the book (I know, I know) but I have picked up information from various adaptations and conversation with people who have read it, so I can fake having read it well enough to recognise things from the source material.
With the exception of some of the timeline changes in the latter half of the movie, there was really only one thing I had a problem with. I am aware, though, that it might be something most people won't notice; I'm going to rant about it under a cut so that I don't plant awareness of it in your mind and ruin what might be a perfectly rewarding cinematic experience. So, no spoilers in the traditional sense of the word, but nevertheless, spoilers ahead:
( Sometimes, it's all about the presentation. )
So there you go, internet, you can stop asking me if I've seen Les Mis now. :) It's definitely worth seeing, my own misgivings aside ... but you can probably expect some expansion upon what I've said above in the coming days as I process it and/or find illustrative screencaps.
As usual, my 'review' is going to make it sound like I didn't like it. I actually liked about 90% of it; the problem was that the other 10% made the 90% really hard to watch.
So, for the record, here is a list of things I love about Tom Hooper's Les Mis:
- The new orchestrations – OMG the new orchestrations – I love them and want to re-record the orchestra retroactively on my London Cast album, like, right now.
- Production design in general
- The vast majority of the acting
- The vast majority of the casting
- The location design around the ABC Café
- The lyrics changes and additions (and I don't like change usually, especially in something so close to my heart), especially ones that brought in more historical perspective and/or moments from the book.* The new verse in Gavroche's solo renders my historical costume post more or less irrelevant! Thanks, Gavroche!
- I actually liked the new song, which was a big surprise because I never like the new songs they put in old musicals. I thought it came at a good moment in the story and did a useful job of adding a dimension to Valjean's character arc, giving us a moment to let things gel before diving into a new pool, and wasn't bad musically either.
- The slight modifications to the timeline in the first half of the movie
- Foreshadowing
- Little things subtly but deliberately placed within the frame which reflect or comment upon the scene
*I have not read the book (I know, I know) but I have picked up information from various adaptations and conversation with people who have read it, so I can fake having read it well enough to recognise things from the source material.
With the exception of some of the timeline changes in the latter half of the movie, there was really only one thing I had a problem with. I am aware, though, that it might be something most people won't notice; I'm going to rant about it under a cut so that I don't plant awareness of it in your mind and ruin what might be a perfectly rewarding cinematic experience. So, no spoilers in the traditional sense of the word, but nevertheless, spoilers ahead:
( Sometimes, it's all about the presentation. )
So there you go, internet, you can stop asking me if I've seen Les Mis now. :) It's definitely worth seeing, my own misgivings aside ... but you can probably expect some expansion upon what I've said above in the coming days as I process it and/or find illustrative screencaps.
