5/5 Stars
I actually want to give this movie ALL OF THE STARS (Get it? Of course you get it. I'm hilarious!)
If you haven't heard of The Fault on Our Stars, you're lying. You must be sick of every single teenage girl around you going on and on AND ON about it ALL THE DAM TIME! (Sorry, couldn't help the PJO reference hehe) But let me say this, this book and its movie are definitely worth the hype.
After waiting what seemed like an eternity for the movie to come out here in Egypt, and going to the cinema to find all the tickets for the movie sold out the first time I tried (I had to book tickets on the phone in advance to find seats) I finally saw this masterpiece of a movie.
So I read The Fault in Our Stars a while back ( you can check out Farah's review here) and I absolutely loved it. John Green is a gift from the gods! So naturally, I was expecting a good movie, but I was a little bit skeptic because YA book-to-movie adaptations have been pretty depressing lately (Beautiful Creatures, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters, to name a few) So what a joy it was to finally have a book-to-movie adaptation live up to, or even exceed, my expectations.
The acting was better than anything I could have wished for. The insanely talented Shailene Woodley proved once again that there isn't a role she can play less than flawlessly. She WAS Hazel. And the precious Ansel Elgort mastered the part of every girl's favorite amputee, Augustus Waters. He was funny, he was cocky, he was dreamy, and he shattered my heart into a million pieces. Nat Wolff was incredible as Isaac, though I do wish he had more screen time. Laura Dern and Sam Trammell portrayed Hazel's parents so beautifully they brought tears to my eyes on more than one occasion. (Everything in this movie made me cry, but that's beside the point) And Willem Dafoe managed to make me hate Van Houten more than I already did, which is no easy feat, so a round of applause to this great man. Long story short, this movie had the perfect cast.
The movie was almost exactly the same as the book! Of course, there were some slight alterations and omissions, but the changes weren't really that relevant. The plot was the same, and most of the lines were taken straight from the book, so as a huge fan, I was satisfied (I wish they hadn't cut John Green's cameo, though, because I definitely would've freaked out right in the middle of the cinema!) To fellow TFIOS fans, please, please don't be one of those annoying people who say, "It was good, but the book was better!" Movies are not books, they're an entirely different thing, so don't expect a movie to ever turn out better than the book, it's just not possible (except maybe with The Notebook.)
Before I went to see this movie, I was told that the movie wouldn't make me cry as much as I'd expect to. THAT WAS A LIE! I sobbed so hard I got a headache, and I wasn't the only one. All of the people who went in to see The Fault in Our Stars (95% of whom were teenage girls, by the way) came out weeping. After the movie, the bathroom was full of girls trying to fix their makeup after making their mascara run down their face from all the crying.
Josh Boone did a terrific job directing this movie. Actually, everyone who was involved in this movie did an outstanding job. John Green must be proud!
If you haven't seen this movie yet, then go buy all the tissue boxes in the store (they still won't be enough) and go see it right this instant. You'll be emotionally unstable afterwards, but it'll be totally worth it. Okay?
QOTD: What is the worst, most horrifically terrible book-to-movie adaptation you've ever seen?
For me, it's probably Beautiful Creatures. That movie was so atrocious, it made me want to stab my eye with a fork!
For me, it's probably Beautiful Creatures. That movie was so atrocious, it made me want to stab my eye with a fork!
