4-21-15

Before I began watching the movie, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I knew I wasn’t in for a typical, cheesy, old-timey horror movie. I came to this conclusion because after reading Robert Louis Stevenson’s mystery novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I knew it would take a great amount of expertise and hard work to pull of the display of the complexity and mystery that came along with reading the novel. When I began watching the movie, I expected a great deal of entertainment, and that’s what I got. The movie, of course, did feature a few tweaks and changes here and there, but along with what I thought to be negative aspects of the movie, also came with what I thought to be positive additions.

Negatives:

– The movie doesn’t feature Mr. Utterson, who was a respected lawyer and a friend of Dr. Jekyll. I see this as a negative because I believe Mr. Utterson played a key role in the novel. Also, when reading the book, I thought that the continuous action of Mr. Utterson trying to get to the bottom of why Mr. Hyde was the only person on Dr. Jekyll’s will, helped add mystery to the story, which I believe the viewer of the movie missed out on.

-The movie doesn’t clarify background characters very well. I believe this is a negative point because, as being a reader of the novel, I found myself becoming a little confused during the movie because of my lack of knowledge of some of the new characters, such as the group of people that Dr. Jekyll had a very nice dinner with one night. The addition of characters wasn’t necessarily a bad aspect, but the catching up on knowledge on some of the new characters did play a negative role.

-Mr Hyde dies from being shot instead of suicide. I view this as a negative aspect because I think that the viewer is deprived of getting a real sense of how hard it was on Dr. Jekyll to stay away from his evil side. The death in the book does a much better job of painting the picture for the reader because the suicide portrays the constant inner battle that Jekyll faced because of the horrible desires of Mr. Hyde.

Positives:

-The movie features additional scenes, such as the scene where Ivy is performing on stage, that add both more entertainment and even some more understanding for the viewer. These additional scenes do not affect the novel in any shape or form in my opinion. Actually, I believe they help the progression of the storyline and plot.

-Even with different characters than the book being affected, the movie does a good job of depicting Hyde’s evilness. Unlike the book, Ivy is Hyde’s main attention on displaying his wickedness. I thought that the troubles she faced due to Hyde, at times, did an even better job than book of conveying Hyde’s deceitful ways.

– The movie implies irony dealing with the subjects of good and evil. For example, the preacher preaches on good and evil in the opening scene, which laid the foundation for the rest of the movie to follow. It also provided irony because of the later troubles that Dr. Jekyll would face over the issue of being both good and evil.

Overall:
– I believe that the movie does a decent job in depicting Robert Louis Stevenson’s message of good vs. evil from the novel, even with the few changes that are present in the movie.