Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2010 12:35:38 GMT
About a month ago I watched the 70's version of the film The Wicker Man which had an excellent plot and superb acting from both Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee. Last night I sat down to watch the recent Nicholas Cage remake and now wished I hadn't. The remake pretty much butchered the original, Cage was no substitute for Woodward and the end revealed a plot hole so big I don't know how it managed to get through. Somebody was also taking the p*ss when naming the characters as the cops name was called Edward and he was looking for a girl called Rowan Woodward who was his daughter in the film!
The plot of the original goes as such. A cop (Woodward) discovers that a girl called Rowan is to be sacrificed in a pagan ritual on an island near Scotland by a group of people lead by Christopher Lee's character. Their crops have failed and it is claimed that if a person of good heart and mind (a perfect member of the human race) is sacrificed by fire in a large wicker man creation then their crops would be saved for the following year. Woodward's cop tries to save Rowan by going to the island only to discover that she didn't actually exist and he was lured there by the tribe to be sacrificed himself.
The plot of the remake goes as follows. A cop (Cage) discovers that his daughter Rowan is to be sacrificed in a ritual on an island just off America by a group of people lead by a woman. Their crops have failed ... (I won't repeat that bit because its the same as the original). Cage's cop tries to save his daughter with the aid of his girlfriend and mother of Rowan who is a member of the tribe only to discover that his girlfriend (a character named Willow) is actually one of the people who planned to have Cage sacrificed by fire in the first place. It turns out she deliberately became his girlfriend and had a child with him years before so that they could use the child to lure him to the island to be sacrificed. Cage has both his legs broken so that he can't escape and is then sacrificed.
The plot hole I mentioned earlier in the remake is that it admits that the whole sacrifice thing was planned years ago when Willow dated Edward and had a child with him. It was as if they knew years in advance that their crops would fail at some particular year in the future so they planned the sacrifice in advance.
I think I'll stick to the original from now on.
The plot of the original goes as such. A cop (Woodward) discovers that a girl called Rowan is to be sacrificed in a pagan ritual on an island near Scotland by a group of people lead by Christopher Lee's character. Their crops have failed and it is claimed that if a person of good heart and mind (a perfect member of the human race) is sacrificed by fire in a large wicker man creation then their crops would be saved for the following year. Woodward's cop tries to save Rowan by going to the island only to discover that she didn't actually exist and he was lured there by the tribe to be sacrificed himself.
The plot of the remake goes as follows. A cop (Cage) discovers that his daughter Rowan is to be sacrificed in a ritual on an island just off America by a group of people lead by a woman. Their crops have failed ... (I won't repeat that bit because its the same as the original). Cage's cop tries to save his daughter with the aid of his girlfriend and mother of Rowan who is a member of the tribe only to discover that his girlfriend (a character named Willow) is actually one of the people who planned to have Cage sacrificed by fire in the first place. It turns out she deliberately became his girlfriend and had a child with him years before so that they could use the child to lure him to the island to be sacrificed. Cage has both his legs broken so that he can't escape and is then sacrificed.
The plot hole I mentioned earlier in the remake is that it admits that the whole sacrifice thing was planned years ago when Willow dated Edward and had a child with him. It was as if they knew years in advance that their crops would fail at some particular year in the future so they planned the sacrifice in advance.
I think I'll stick to the original from now on.