Interested in advertising on Derpibooru? Click here for information!
Help fund the $15 daily operational cost of Derpibooru - support us financially!
Description
Fanart based on Count of Monte Cristo animatic by Inkpotts
Policy Update - Rules changes incoming for AI content - Read Here
It’s just how I see a work like this. Too many directors have tried to recreate old epics, adding things here and there that are honestly unnecessary, and it just doesn’t feel the same as a result. I’ll again use “Le Miserables” as an example as it’s been remade many, many times, barely ever even coming close to how awesome any of the six hour-long stage productions are.
The reveal scene is indeed badass. Fernand’s expression, more than anything else, just really sells it. In a single instant, he’s consumed by absolute hate. It’s beautiful.
No worries, I agree that it feels tacked-on as well. I just think that both come across as such, that’s all.
For movie direction, I agree that this shouldn’t do what the 2002 movie did and add on some action scenes just to have them. It’s too easy to simply kill your target, the Count destroys all aspects of them. Their reputation, their private life, even their state of mind. He makes people have ironic endings. The brave war hero Morcierf ends up taking the cowards way out. The rich Danglar becomes near destitute, the ironclad deVillefort insane. Ooh, I love it!
In the 2002 film, I almost agree with you on best scene. It’s an excellent few seconds that make us, and the character think, ‘Where can he go?’ He is wanted, penniless without a wife and his child turns out to be his rival’s. With nothing else to live for, he decides to fight for vengeance, to take whAt he can before leaving this world.
However, I LOVE when Dantes reveals himself to deVillefort, and the reaction. It’s the culmination of years of planning and many sleepless nights filled with hate. ‘….Dantes?’
Awesome.
About the ending, isn’t him suddenly getting with Haydee almost out of the blue? That’s way more of a tacked on happy ending than two broken people trying to rebuild their old lives together, or to try to make a whole new one.
And yes, I do have a favorite scene, though it varies with each adaptation. In the musical, it’s “Everyday a Little Death” because of how crushingly alone Edmond and Mercedes both feel. Edmond is a shell of his former self, completely crushed by his prison home. Mercedes attempts to reassure herself that she’ll see her lover again someday, only for Fernand to lie yet again and falsely inform her that Edmond is indeed dead. There’s just so much going on in this song.
For the 2002 movie, I’d say that my favorite part is when Fernand attempts to escape after shooting Mercedes. He turns tail like a coward, climbs atop his horse, and gallops towards the horizon. Then he just stops… and stares… You can see that a boat-load of things are rushing through his mind. In the end, his pompousness and greed bring him back, whereupon he declares his challenge.
Lastly, my favorite part in the original novel is simply the character of Noirtier Villefort in general. It’s damn near impossible to kill the man (he survives both duels to the death and being poisoned in the original) and, even while paralyzed, manages to put a stop to Valentine’s unwanted marriage. He’s made out of concentrated awesome.
As for Edmond and Mercedes hooking back up? I actually prefer that they don’t. By the end, they’ve become thoroughly different people than they once were; Edmond bitter and jaded and Mercedes just kind of… broken. It really wouldn’t make sense to try and tack on a happy ending for them after all that’s happened.
Perhaps a series of movies instead, perhaps? Could two epic length capture the majority of the story? The first film dealing with establishing the characters, the prison, the escape and the traveling, while the second deals with all the Paris stuff? I can see the first film ending after Albert invites the Count to Paris. Though, I dunno, I’m just spitballing here.
Do you have a favourite scene in The Count of Monte Cristo? Though it varies with interpretation, mine is when Mercedes finally realizes why she recognized the Count. It’s both romantic in that only she was able to see him for who he was and incredibly tragic for all that has happened to each of them since, all the questions to ask.
This is one of the reasons I disliked the third act of the anime, they last talk before the Duel between Franz and the Count, then never again for the whole series, even though they seemed to be leading up to it. I get that this adaptation has the spirit of vengeance Dantes said he would become intensifies rather than fades, but STILL. She is the last good thing about his old life, the best thing.Hell, in the books, Mercedes anticipates he was going to ask her to marry him afterwards. It’s one of the few gripes I have with the original story, how Dumas makes Mercedes such a tragic figure. She loses her first love to marry the man responsible, has a child with him and years Later the new life she made is destroyed by her old love, her son gone away and she goes to join a convent. Damn.
I don’t like the Haydee ending. I know it was more common back then, but Dantes is over 40 by the end, and Haydee, if I remember isn’t half that.
(Then again, I’m being a hypocrite since I like the ending of Jane Eyre)
I can’t help but prefer Mercedes and Dantes getting back together, it honestly felt like that’s where it was gonna go, theming and all. Learning to forgive and move on with yourself, to put past wounds aside and to live happy regardless of the grievances of the past.
Given the size and scope of the original, it isn’t likely that a movie will ever capture the story of “The Count of Monte Cristo” perfectly. It’s just too much. Kind of like no movie has ever really captured the spirit of “Le Miserables”; it’s just way too much material to cover in the limited time frame that most movies are designed around.
Also, I’ve seen the anime you’re referring to. The art in that show was outstanding. I first picked it up as one of the free preview DVDs that used to come in Newtype USA. After watching the first episode, I went and bought the rest. Totes worth it.
Don’t think I’ve seen the French mini-series though.
A person should be proud of their work, but the writer for the movie said he believes his version is better than the original. The gall! I like the film, it does what it can in 2 hours for a story that can be it’s own film series, but it lacks a lot of the intelligence and manipulation of the original text. I mean, Dantes screws over his hated enemies not by revealing what they did to him, but what they have done since. Mondego, his war crimes, deVillefort his attempt to bury his child, the nefarious banking of Danglars and using the greed of selfishness of Caderousse to his advantage.
The anime series of The Count of Monte Cristo is AMAZING…for two thirds, the third act is still good, but deviates too far from the original story in more ways th a n just style.
The French mini series of The Count of Monte Cristo probably does the best job of humanizing and grounding all the amazing things Dantes does and the support he had from his servants.
Wouldn’t be the first time a director was unfaithful to or didn’t know the history of the material that they were attempting to put to film.
Look at what Michael Bay did to “Pearl Harbor”, yo.
Thanks!
It’s weird that in the 2002 movie he gets Mercedes pregnant just so we can have the almost, ‘Maury’, show like reveal at the end.
Dantes was supposed to be the epitome of a good, honest person, which makes his fall and change that more dramatic. So, in the 1800’s, being a sailor and saving yourself for marriage was being a good person, while having sex before marriage was bad, though commonplace.
I actually REALLY like the movie, but the creative team behind it were laughably half-assed about the film. The director said the Chateu D’if wasn’t a real place, so they had to do it somewhere else. I went to Marseille not even a month ago, and I can assure you it’s real, it’s visible from many of the high points of the city, as it’s only a mile or two away from the harbour.
No, you’ve got it spot-on =) .
Weeeeell….in the 2002 movie, it’s a month because of her pregnancy and needing the support and excuse.
In the book, she only marries Fernand after he tells her Dantes died after a year being imprisoned for treason (unless I’m remembering incorrectly…)
Betrayed by close friends, imprisoned on false charges for 13 years, discovers that his bride married one of his nemesis next month after he got into jail - i wonder who would NOT looks angry.