Those who have read my blog previously, you probably know that I am a massive fan of Jane Austen. She is one of my favourite authors - her and J.K. Rowling are probably tied at the top spot for me, seeing as Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter are my two favourite stories of all time. So you can imagine how I felt when I heard that a film was being made with zombies in the mix! I had already heard of the book Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and it’s safe to say that I was appalled. I thought that it would just mess with my beloved Lizzie Bennet and Mr. Darcy in a way that I was not happy about.
But then I had mixed feelings about the upcoming film. I thought about it for a while and then I saw the trailer and actually became really excited about it. There were some of my favourite things in there: Mr. Darcy, badass women kicking butt, Mr. Darcy, a good Netherfield ball and Mr. Darcy - did I mention him?
In the week leading up to its release I kept talking about it to some of my friends. I was so nervous that Jane Austen’s beloved characters would be morphed and twisted into something they were not but I had seen many good reviews so I was not as worried as I had previously been.
When I returned from my trip to Nice, my mum and I went to see the first showing of the film as was possible. And I have to say that we weren’t disappointed.
The opening line of the film was ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains,’ which I have to admit made me squeal quite a bit. Moments like this were echoed throughout the film whenever a direct book quote was used. Various lines were mishmashes around so that some characters said lines that originally belonged to other characters or said their book lines at a different point in the original story. But you know what? I actually didn’t care. It made sense with the added zombies in there and the plot changes that I knew were inevitable.
How about the characters that I was so worried about being unrecognisable to their Jane Austen originals?
They were kept the same in essentials. Lizzy was her same old sassy self and Darcy was, well, Darcy. Bingley was still positive, not the brightest and the least badass out of them all, which was unsurprising as he’s exactly that in Pride and Prejudice. Sally Phillips was hilarious as Mrs. Bennet, who was as overbearing, silly and pushy as she normally is!
There were a few changes made to some characters, but even then I didn’t mind. Mr. Collins was less odious and smarmy, just a bit more stupid and clumsy. He was funnier though, which is always a plus. Jane was more badass and a bit brighter - again, great - and we didn’t really see much of Lydia, Kitty and Mary Bennet.
And how did the zombies fit with my favourite book?
Admittedly the presence of the undead meant that some of the plot had to change. I knew that was going to happen. But overall, it remained pretty similar, particularly when it came to the two main love stories. The zombie element added a lot of silliness, but I liked it. To be honest, the silliness was great - I really loved it and I laughed so much.
This is an opinion of a dedicated Janeite who would probably (definitely) follow Mr. Darcy to the ends of the earth. I would love to know what someone who isn’t as big of a fan of the original Pride and Prejudice book as I am. Did you find it just as good? Or was it me loving the fact that I was seeing my favourite characters in a different light?
Instagram | Bloglovin' | Pinterest | Google+
No comments
Post a Comment