Movie Vs. Book # 2 Sequels

The way I am going to compare the two this time is through the way they dealt with sequels, but I will go into more detail later. The main difference is that in the movie's they divided the book up into two parts, the first Frankenstein movie and Bride Of Frankenstein, were as in the book they are mixed together into the same plot line. Another difference that is big is that the book has had no sequels while the movies moved off the source material for the 3rd movie Son Of Frankenstein, and they were creating their own stories. Also we have to talk about the Hammer horror films which were remakes of the Universal Horror movies, and one of these happened to be Frankenstein but they had to call it Curse of Frankenstein for copyright reason's and this one was the middle of the road were it creates some new things for the movie but also uses some thing's from the book. This movie was then followed by 6 sequels that have no connection to the book in anyway shape or form except that they all have the monster. So when it comes to capitalizing on the original the book was never given a sequel because it really didn't have any potential for a sequel and in the case of the book that is the right way to go because the first book so far is good. The way they are the same is that Bride and the original Frankenstein were all in the first book, and also for Bride they decided to stick a little closer to the second half of the story witch is what Bride of Frankenstein is based off of. So overall I think both sides made the right choice because really the book and all of the movies are two different beast that are good and bad in their own ways. For reference here are photos of the posters for 4 movies, The original Universal Frankenstein and Bride Of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein and Curse Of Frankenstein.

 

Frankenstein: Reading Skills

One of my prediction's for the story is that the monster will kill some of the people close to Victor Frankenstein like his Brother and possibly his girlfriend, could both be future victims of the monster if he doesn't stop the monster in time. Another prediction I am going to make is that Victor is going to do something to make the monster mad and want to hurt him, and his friends. One of the questions I have about the book is will they have a book end like they had for the prologue to show what happens after the events of the story that the doctor tells. Another question I have is why would the doctor bring loved one to see a monster that he doesn't know what it would do if it came in contact with other people, like maybe it would murder some one or if you leave it then isn't there a chance he could escape harm other people. A text to world connection I can make is that in the book, there is a monster with no name and really you could compare that to the big hacking fiasco when Anonymous a faceless a hacker group brought the PlayStation Network to it's knees.  A text to text connection I can make is the monster and Dracula, because both of them are monsters famous in the gothic horror genre, and they both have people hunting them with Van Helsing hunting Dracula and Victor Frankenstein hunting the monster. A text to self connection I can make is to the monster because he is this monster misunderstood by society and was more sympathetic then people gave him for, and a while back in the 6th grade I had bad self esteem issues, and also I got made fun of and beat up a lot in the 6th grade at first then when I see these people in the 7th grade they were like wait I beat you up well sorry, and one of the kid's is even a friend of mine now, because he realized I wasn't that bad to hangout with and even apologized to me.

Frankenstein: The Movie Vs. Book # 1 The monster

In this post I am going to look at the differences between the Universal Frankenstein monster and the monster described in the book so first I am going to talk about the one in the book. The monster in the book is described more man looking with just a face sewn together and all the body parts are sewn together, and it looks a lot more human and realistic, so this is what they describe in the book. The monster in the Universal movie is more zombie like and is more monster looking with the green skin, and flat head, and they sort of made the monster a little less creepy and murderous the and left a lot of things about the monster out. When I compare the two I think they are two different characters but with the Universal one they made it less creepy and a little less smarter but also made the monster more sympathetic that we kind of rooted for him because they made him more sympathetic, and Boris Karloff gives a great performance as the monster and he really added the sadness to the monster . Then I look at the creature in the book, he is more creepier and he actually kills a lot more people then in the movie, and we want the doctor to catch and kill his own creation to stop it from harming anyone else , also he is more realistically described with normal skin all sewn together and the facial features he has. If I had to pick one I would pick Karloff's version of the monster because I like to feel a little sympathy for the character rather then always have him being a vicious killer not to say I don't like the monster in the book, it is a good creepy character that could genuinely creep me out. The images below are from the Universal one and the Movie that stuck really close to the book appearance wise, and is the closest thing I could find.     

Book Recomendation: First Blood By. David Morrele

The book I am going to recommend is the book First Blood, this book happens to be my favorite book I have ever read. The reason being that the book just so masterfully puts you into the shoes of two characters, John Rambo, and Sherriff Tessil. The way this is shown is that for every action Rambo takes, they show how it effects the sheriff and how he responds, and it really makes you question who you should root for, the Vietnam veteran who was pushed to far or the sheriff protecting his sense of pride, and his deputies. It really paints a picture of how there is no real bad guy or good guy but really just two men fighting to survive on both fronts and it is left up to the reader to decide who is the good guy or bad guy. The plot of the book is very simple but it is executed so well that it makes you wish that there were more story, so the book starts out with our main character John Rambo wondering through this town and because he is a Vietnam vet, he is picked on by the sheriff and eventually arrested for no good reason. This then pushes Rambo to the point that he just snaps and starts a one man war, were we switch point of views during every chapter between Rambo and the Sherriff. Midway through the book they call in Rambo's old colonel, Colonel Trautman who helps and try and find him and the rest of the book is a chase thriller. Now this book was published before the movie First Blood, and I really like that movie too but I do like the but the book is better because the author makes it to were you don't know who to root for, were as in the movie they clearly want you to root for Rambo. I might be biased because this is my favorite book of all time but I am going to give this movie 5/5 stars for it's superb story telling and it 's masterful use of scenery and emotion to show what the character is going through. Over all I would recommend that anyone who is a fan of the movie or just wants to read a chase thriller then this book is for you and I recommend you pick it up.

Article 2

The article here is from The New York times talking about the book written Roseanne Montillo, and the book they discuss is called The Lady and Her Monsters. It is about how Mary Shelly's Frankenstein can be related to other experiments that were conducted in real life and, also it talks about how when she was writing the book it describes her thought process. The article goes into detail about the people in the book that the author discusses, and it also goes into detail about her history and how science and philosophy influenced her book. Also it talks about how Mary Shelly is the daughter of  Mary Woolencraft, an enlightened thinker who was a champion for women's rights back in the enlightenment era, and it goes into some details about the books plot points. It also talks about the scientist of the time and the grave robbing that occurred with some of the experiments that they would conduct.  The link to the article is right here it will take you to the New York Times website. The Article

Mary Shellys Frankenstein the 1994 movie trailer

Mary Shellys Frankenstien the movie was released in 1994 by Tristar as a made for tv movie adaption. While I don't think it as good as the universal Frankenstein it does actually stick closer to the book then the other movie and it is a liitle scarier then the other movie. Also this one has a more accurate depiction of how the monster was depicted in the book as more of man then just a green monster. The movie does what it sets out to do whitch is make an adaptation faithul to the book, but really the movie isn't really that good either because when they adapted the book they take some of the slow creepy scene in the book and turn it into a fast action scene you would see in the likes of Van Helsing. Over all I would say you rent the movie for the faithul adaption factor but it really isn't worth paying more then two bucks for to see it. Here is a trailer for the movie to see if you are interested. Click the hyper link and the video will play in full screen.

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History lesson/ Blog 2

History Lesson: The book Frankenstein was published in 1818 for the first time anonymously by Mary Shelly in limited run of 500 copies of each volume. It wasn't till the second publication that Mary Shelly's name was put on the cover and acknowledges her as the author of the book after heavily editing the book to make it have more action. She got the idea from a dream she had were she had to write the best horror story she could and she came up with the idea that a man creates something and it grows destroys him. The book is one of the earliest known examples of science fiction even though I consider it more of a horror novel with a couple science fiction elements. There is also a common misconception that the name of the monster is Frankenstein, but no it is only referred to as the monster in both the book and the movie. Also \the book it self is now in the public domain  but not the movie and the reason being is that the copy right on the movie is from 1931 and Universal renewed it some time in the past but it extended the copyright till 2026to make it copyrighted for another 25 years or so after the in initial 70 your allowed when you copyright it, but the book it self has become public domain because it was made before 1923 and anything before is automatically in the public domain. So that is how I am going to end this update on what I have learned from background research.

Article 1

The Article linked below is an article written for the Chicago Tribune talking about the life of Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein and it goes to a little detail about her life and other such things, about her and her family. It talks about how tradgic her life was and that she had so many people around her die within close succession of each other. It also talks about these letters that linked her knowing alot about politics and being very informed on the issues of her time, they even talk about how she was not a fan of Charles Dickens. It also talks about her critisism of the Americans and that she was heavily into the feminist ideas, because her mother was Mary Woolencraft an enlightend thinker and a champion for womens rights and stuff along those lines. They also talk about the book, Letters Of Mary Woolencraft Shelly, were all the letters that revealed all this sruff about her and more. The article link is to the right click it and it will take you to the Chicago Tribune. Read The Article

Cover of the book

Cover and explanation of the edition I have: The version of Frankenstein I have is an updated version that includes a history of Frankenstein and it's Author Marry Shelley at the beginning of the book, and at the end there is an index explaining the terms and filmography of Frankenstein. Also it shows that the majority of this book does take place in the snowy mountains of Geneva. The person on the cover is either Dr. Frankenstein or the monster, it is left to your own interpretation of what you think it is. The cover of the book makes it actually look quite eery, like what am I getting myself into when I read this book with this person on the cover looking relatively close death stumbling through amountain area.

Frankenstein Blog 1

Blog Update: 9/4/2013: The Book I am currently reading is Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. So far I have read the two chapters, so I can't say much about the book but so far is pretty good. The book starts out with this guy who's name is only R. Walton writing letters to his sister about how he is exploring the world. Then he meets up with this guy that he ends taking care of because when he found the guy he was half frozen and sick so while caring for him on the ship, starts to develop a friend ship with the guy. This is as far as I have gotten so far but it sounds pretty interesting and it is kind of slow but, I like the slow build up of horror, then it all comes to a breaking point, is what I like to read in my horror novels. Another thing that I want to point out that I pointed out in the last blog that none of the stuff in this prologue is actually in the 1931 movie. That is all I have to say about the book for now but I will have more to say about it in the near future.

Frankenstein 1931 trailer

 

This Trailer is for the 1931 film adaption and while it is not the first film adaption, the first movie was made in 1910 by the Thomas Edison film studio. Also there is supposedly one before that but it is considered to be a lost film, but back to the 1931 film. Well it wasn't the closest adaption of the book there is, because they do leave out the prologue pretty much and a couple other things I have noticed. I would still check it out if I were you though because I personally really like this movie a whole lot, and it is pretty funny and sad if you watch it today. There is also a trailer for the 1994 Frankenstein movie that I will post later on and that movie is not as good as this one but I will talk more about that later in greater detail. So just click the hyperlink and it will bring a full screen video up.

 

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