"The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking."
― A Knife of Never Letting Go ―

 

Hello everyone! Welcome to "Book to Movie Adaptation" series where i will compare the book and the movie. Actually this series is the first series i made in this blog, ever. Also because i want to review the movie that inspires me to create this blog at the first place, so yeah.. it's a one of "pioneer" of the whole series i have in my blog.

This chapter will also be quite special since the other three chapters before this one are about the book and the movie that i read and watch back to back and then review it, this one i have read the book years before and one of my fave series of all time (if you don't know already i mentioned this series a lot) and finally the long awaiting movie is released! So, without further ado, let's dive in!

Synopsis

Set in New World in 2257 AD, we follows Todd Hewitt, the only boy left in his village that consist of all man, no woman. Woman are no longer exist because of the war against the native species they called as The Spackle, and he is the only one that hasn't fully grow up. The world itself are the world with lots of noises. We can all hear whatever people thinking through the noises. But all of the things that he believes starting to revealed one by one, woman still exist, just not in his village. And when the pod clashed in his village that turns out ridden by a girl name Viola, everything's changes.

 

Book and Movie Comparison

 I won't review the book again, since i've mentioned it a lot in book recommendations all over my blog, so i will go right into the comparison. But before that, let's talk about the not-so-fun fact :

This movie almost didn't make it. 

I remember i was all over this series in 2017. I read the last book exactly four years ago, in august 2017, bringing the last book on my way to attend my father's colleague's mourning house, and cried a lot not because of the mourning place i visited, but because of how sad the last book was. Then the news hit, about the movie is being released. I was so hyped can't wait. 

But in the end they said it won't be released, part one is because Tom is growing up and now if they have to continue the shoot, it will be obvious about the physically differences in some part, and the productions fee are too much to handle, so it decided to be not going to continue it. 

But in the end of 2020 they said the movie is going to be released and it's final! Me and my bookstagram friend who also a big fan for this series rejoices. I was also super curious about how the Noise will look like in the movie, since in the book it literally in words in the sky.

 

 Book to Movie Comparison

1. The Book is a Series, The Movie isn't

After the almost not going to be released, then it back again on the market, we can see why it's not based on the first book title "The Knife of Never Letting Go" but the whole series title "Chaos Walking" which mean yes, how could a series consist of three books compressed into a movie? It's simply called as a mission impossible. 

2. The Plot between the book and the movie is different

Of course there will always be some differences from book to movie naturally, but this one is definitely different. In the book Todd leave the town because his family asked him to go, without really knowing what's happening and why. But in the movie, Todd is running away from the mayor because the mayor want to kill Viola in order to stop her alarming the other colony that on the way to the new world. 

Although yes in the time in the book they indeed tried to go to find a tower, to contact people in the spaceship away from the New world, but the main reason was not that, Todd in the movie really running away to save Viola not himself with Viola tagging along with him in process like in the book.

3. Manchee speaks!

One of the most charming character in the book is Manchee the dog. It has a witty fun sense of humor but also a loyal dog to Todd. In the book Manchee can barks words, tho not a sentence, but in the movie Manchee just a loyal dog. Although the story is touching and almost the same about Manchee, but i just miss its witty comment while talking to Todd. 

 

4. Spackle Stories

Spackle, the scary species in this New World who is the actual citizen in this New World before human dominate this world. It was a scary species in first book, in second and specially the third book we got the glimpse of their story, their point of view, how they see human, the one that practically made them slaves, even treated them harsher than animal. 

I was so upset that this movie didn't talk about it much. Yes it has the scene when Todd kill a Spackle in the first book, but their story in the third book is just heartbreaking that it was so sad that too bad not to be in the movie

5. Mayor's Death

I guess i spoiled you already by this, yes he's dead by the end of the book, but his death also tragic and by reading his point of view, it was just a devastating chapter, i cried a lot. By the end of the book i feel his  character not just a scary character, but also thoughtful and yes he's kind of love Todd more than his own son. But in the movie he just died fall from the top of the shipwreck (sort of ) just tragic and like "yes he deserve that" kind of feeling. Too bad the complexity of each character in the book didn't show much in the movie.

6. The War Scene

It's too bad that the ending scene where Todd has to fight the Mayor didn't really show much about how much Todd's power related to his feeling to Viola. In the book, Todd fight Mayor's noise with shouting out in his mind Viola's name repeatedly. While in the movie Todd was just playing hide and seek with Mayor. Well of course he use his noise to defeat Mayor but not with shouting Viola's name but with showing illusion of women that has been killed in the Prentiss town. 

Also with another point of view of the Spackle, we got three different characters in the war, while in the movie, it was only the mayor and Todd there. Like i said before the ending scene was devastating, it was hard to read because i became so into these three characters (mayor included) that made the whole series super complex while in the movie it was just a simple the protagonist against the villain kind of scene.

 

What I Like in the Movie

 I really like the way they create the Noise. I really like the color of it, the beauty of their thoughts showed in some kind of colorful aurora / smoke kind of thing it really past my expectation. I also like the added power of the Noise in the movie, that they can make an illusion that really cool showed first by Todd's father to fool the mayor while try to give Todd and Viola time to runaway, which Todd also use to defeat the mayor at the end of the movie (which show how Todd, tho he's lack in education but his ability to survive, adapt and quick to learn) well yeah tho the ending is not the same as the book but, i still like this side of him.

My Verdict

I know there are some movie adaptation that works fine even tho its different than the origin of the book. How To Train Your Dragon for example, the movie was way better than the book. It took the characters names but Toothless is completely different than in the book, the plot absolutely different yet the movie become one of the best animation movie that adapted from a book. But this one i got to agree, no matter how much i love this series, the movie is just a disappointing.Well i love the casts, but it's a sad that it didn't live up the amazing series that is just a bummer. 

Read also previous chapter :