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Cryoma · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:03 pm Post subject: Beck: Live Action Film

Here we go, yet another adaption failure.
The Beck:MCS manga was one of the BEST manga EVER written.
It was hard to adapt that into an anime that could even hold a candle to the original.
As a matter of fact the anime pretty much bombed in comparison, if it weren't for the great music I wouldn't have enjoyed it at all.
I'd say the best anime adaptions have the least change from the manga.
Anyway, this live action full-feature film they made was great in some areas and terrible in others.
It was adapted off of the anime, with several large changes, leaving it nowhere near the original manga in similarity.
The cast was pretty great, the actors all suited their characters well.
The music was good, really pro musicians, BUT WHAT THE FUCK NONE OF THE SONGS WERE THE SAME AS THE ANIME, THEY HAD TO GO AND MAKE ENTIRELY NEW ORIGINAL SONGS.
It was extremely disappointing when I recognized a certain scene and was ready to sing along with one of my favorite songs, and then they play something entirely different.
Another thing, the main character, who is supposed to be this genius singer/songwriter, DOESN'T HAVE A VOICE IN THE MOVIE.
That was probably the biggest disappointment of all, whenever this kid gets on stage and sings there's no voice coming out, just subtitles and an awestruck audience.
Also, I guess this is because of legal issues, but all references and influence of real-life musicians were taken out.
In the manga and anime the band covered some neat beatles pieces, and there were even other fictional bands who were featured as well.
In the movie, we're stuck listening to Beck and Beck only, with no cover songs.
So here it is in essence:
The movie lost the original splendor of the manga by cutting out more than half of the storyline, and lost the great music of the anime by coming up with entirely original songs.
Also note that the movie is two and a half hours long.
Maybe it's not so obvious to the directors, but how do you expect to compress a 250 volume manga into two and a half hours?
Even the 26 episode anime was rushing through the incredible story, and ended way early.
I strongly believe this should have been produced as an ongoing live-action series, with maybe two to four seasons.
It would take at least two seasons to explore the manga's storyline in entirety, and considering that the manga was left open-ended, more series could be written depending on the success of the show.

All in all, here are my end results for the Beck:MCS franchise:

Beck:MCS Manga - 9 stars. I keep one star off because it was a manga about music, which is sort of ironic because you can't hear any of it. But the incredible storyline and depth of characters make up for that.

Beck: The Animation - 7 stars. Incredible soundtrack. It still managed to capture the essence of the manga but I would have preferred it to be longer and more drawn out, as entire chapters from the manga were left out.

Beck: Live Action Film - 6 stars. Terrible story and plot by comparison to the original manga. Great music, but none of it is the same as the anime, which was superb. The lead singer sings, but we can't hear it, unlike the anime where everything was fine.

Aviar³ · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:05 pm Post subject:

This is the part where I say we care.

Though I really do care, and I will avoid the film, though I generally avoid ALL re adaptations (Obviously I've seen some of the Harry Potter and Lord of The Rings, but like I said, generally).

Cryoma · Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:39 pm Post subject:

I forgot to add that in the manga, two of the characters were Japanese but born and raised in New York, so they speak fluent English and struggle with Japanese.
In the anime, the voice actors spoke Engrish, even though they were supposed to be perfect at it.
In the movie, one spoke Engrish and the other Britrish.
Wtf, how do you get a British accent from New York City?