The Mist (Stephen King)

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CTU2fan

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Went to see this last night. I actually liked it, a lot. It stayed pretty true to the story which was nice, and I thought overally it was pretty well-done; the sound when they were out in the mist was all close and echo-less, like when you're in real fog. Nice touch.

BUT...I hated the ending. Absolutely hated it. I'm not going to spoil it, but I don't think I've ever hated an ending, of anything, as bad as I hated this ending. I hated it worse than the end of Dark Tower. Hopefully when the DVD comes out there are alternate endings.
 
Lancemc said:
Would you mind spoiling it for me? I genuinely want to know.

Spoiler!!!
































OK, not sure if you've read the story or not...but in the story it ends with Drayton writing a journal, they are still on the road heading south, and he thinks he heard "Hartford" on the radio...and he ends it something like Hartford & hope. So you never know if they get out or not.



Well, in the movie...Drayton is driving and they run out of gas while still in the mist. So he decides (and everyone agrees) to shoot himself. Well of course there're 5 people in the Land Cruiser and only 4 bullets. David says he'll figure something out for himself (while you hear some unknown monstrosity approaching in the background). Zoom out to the outside of the 'Cruiser and you see flashes/hear gunshots, and everyone is shot. Then David gets out of the car and he's yelling "come get me" etc. And the shadow comes looming out of the mist...and it's an Army tank. And trucks. With survivors. And here's David still alive while shooting everyone else (including his son). Just twisted. :(
 
Hmm, well obviously the story's ending is better, but that's really not quite as bad as I expected. You made it sound like something from Next. :D

I'll likely end up seeing this one on DVD anyway, but thanks.
 
I was pleasantly surprised by this one...

I had read several conflicting reviews; one saying the ending was really good, the next saying it ruined the film so I was pretty wary going into this...

First off, The Mist is one of my favorite short stories by Stephen King and imo the film is pretty much spot on. Not only did Darabont remain faithful to the original story but also the changes he made are improvements as far as I'm concerned...

The casting was perfect for every character, even Thomas Jane whom until now I was not very impressed with. Given his previous work (Deep Blue Sea, The Punisher) I wasn't expecting much but he was surprisingly good.

The monsters were effectively creepy and there were some genuinely frightening and disturbing scenes - the pharmacy sequence comes to mind. Of course the thing I loved the most was the most dangerous and frightening monsters in the movie were the people themselves...

And of course the ending, wow. I really thought it was an improvement on the story. Sure it's very concrete compared to the ambiguous ending of the story but it's such a cold slap in the face that you have to give Darabont props for having the balls to go with it...

Overall, I give it an 8 out of 10.
 
I loved the book when I first read it. Pretty excited about seeing this movie. Nice to see that it's getting good reviews from those who saw it. Worried a bit that they had ruined the storyline.

As for the ending I actually kind of like it :hmm: Shows what desperation and fear will drive you to do.
 
The film's ending didn't seem too bad when I merely read about it. But the execution of the thing is really abysmal. It's awful. One of the most absurd and uncalled-for Hollywood movie endings in a long time.
 
Here are just a few things that struck me as "wrong" with the ending:


SPIOLERS...even though I wouldn't recommend wasting your $10 on this movie anyway.

1. First of all, the man shoots his son in the face. Despite what happens in the film, and after losing your wife, I doubt a sane man would become desperate enough to shoot his own son in the face after just a couple days. That was dumb.

2. *drive drive drive...putter...hiss* "Oh well, that's the end of the gas, too bad we were driving aimlessly down this dirt road where there's no place to hide. Nah, fuck waiting for another car or something, it's bang bang time." *bang bang* That's dumber.

3. And the worst offense of all. Not one minute after David kills 4 people including his son, the Mist magically vanishes and an entire fucking battalion of army dudes and survivors just pulls up behind them...out of nowhere. WTF was that? Honestly? Well, don't worry though. It's OK. Those aliens from a parallel dimension aint got SHIT on these flamethrowers. Not entirely sure what those army dudes were all doing in gas masks either...but the idiocies of this movie just keep piling up in the last act anyway, so I won't fish for all of them.
 
Lancemc said:
1. First of all, the man shoots his son in the face. Despite what happens in the film, and after losing your wife, I doubt a sane man would become desperate enough to shoot his own son in the face after just a couple days. That was dumb.

Dude, other than the people in the grocery store had they encountered another single survivor on their trek? I'm not sure how much gas was in the truck but the passage of time made me feel they had been driving for probably 1 or 2 days. He has witnessed graphically what these creatures can do to you and who's to say what kind of mental state any of us would be in after this. On top of that he made a promise to his son not to let the monsters get him, I can't say what I would do in his shoes but I can't fault him for this especially with the noises of what was presumably more monsters approaching.


2. *drive drive drive...putter...hiss* "Oh well, that's the end of the gas, too bad we were driving aimlessly down this dirt road where there's no place to hide. Nah, fuck waiting for another car or something, it's bang bang time." *bang bang* That's dumber.

This I agree with, although given their past experience of going outside who would really want to? And I noticed most of the vehicles they passed were filled with spider webs as well...


3. And the worst offense of all. Not one minute after David kills 4 people including his son, the Mist magically vanishes and an entire fucking battalion of army dudes and survivors just pulls up behind them...out of nowhere. WTF was that? Honestly? Well, don't worry though. It's OK. Those aliens from a parallel dimension aint got SHIT on these flamethrowers. Not entirely sure what those army dudes were all doing in gas masks either...but the idiocies of this movie just keep piling up in the last act anyway, so I won't fish for all of them.

This is what I really liked; not only was it a kick in the gut but it was totally not what I was expecting. It's a shame you read the spoiler before seeing it, I wonder if you hadn't known before hand, would it have changed your opinion any? Also, I get what you're saying about the Army beating back the creatures and all and how hokey that is but I was willing to forgive this offense for how effectively it worked with the new ending imo...

I mean what was so good about the original ending? They drive off into the mist... woopty doo, not the most original ending either.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:


This is what I really liked; not only was it a kick in the gut but it was totally not what I was expecting. It's a shame you read the spoiler before seeing it, I wonder if you hadn't known before hand, would it have changed your opinion any? Also, I get what you're saying about the Army beating back the creatures and all and how hokey that is but I was willing to forgive this offense for how effectively it worked with the new ending imo...

I mean what was so good about the original ending? They drive off into the mist... woopty doo, not the most original ending either.

I don't have much else to say about my first point, because there really isn't anything that can be argued one way or the other. I think it went completely against what we'd expect his character to do, especially knowing King's style, it just felt wrong to me.

My best friend went into the movie not knowing the end either. He hated it more than I did. I think knowing what happened was actually a better buffer for me, as I actually rate it higher than he did. It's just completely illogical, and I didn't really find it to be much of a "kick to the guy" as you put it, because the circumstances surrounding the tragedy seemed so ludicrous to me, not to mention Thomas Jane's piss-poor scream of agony after he does them all in.

I'm not saying the original ending is original either, since when is originality as issue? The new ending is just bad. The original ending at least didn't break the films own internal logic and expectations.
 
One more, since I just saw this post on the RT thread on this movie. It hits the nail on the head pretty well:

I can't believe this movie is generating this type of a response. I'm dumbfounded. As a B monster movie, it was fine. Totally disposable and forgettable. The ending was laughable and here is why:


This was not the end of the road. It was the end of his gas. Why not use the four bullets to defend themselves while refilling the tank? Or better yet check the ****ing tank before it runs out. First option in that situation is to blow your son's head off? So it doesn't work out and you can't get the gas to move on to say, a bunker or a secure place, fine. You tried. Then jump off a cliff or something. Not much trying going on here. A bullet in the head at that moment is better than trying to get some gas and move on? BAD
 
Look, I can quote things from the RT forums as well:

It's indefensible? Well, I'm about to defend it:

Thomas Jane's character had just come from seeing his dead wife strung up in a cocoon by giant spiders. The survivors then see a ridiculously massive monster walk over their car, and they feel miniscule and doomed. Knowing what these creatures do, and out of gas, they had every reason to believe they were going to suffer a horrible, painful death. Jane didn't want that for his son. The fact that the army sweeps in right then and saves the day is a terrible irony, and it horrified and disturbed me, which is what a good horror film should do.

What's odd to me is that if spiders had swarmed in on Jane's character after he exits the car and brutally killed him as film faded to black, everyone would think he made the right decision. I hate to use the cliche hindsight is 20/20... but...
 
Doesn't change the fact that they fucking drove down a barren dirt road for god-knows-how-long until they simply ran out of gas. Great, now we're in the middle of nowhere, and we can't see shit. The point is, the script just doesn't make any sense. What kind of logic is that to follow? How about, "Oh we have 3/4 of a tank here, that's enough to travel so many miles, let's try to drive to hotel, or this mall, or this GAS STATION, or something that even resembles the slightest lick of human intelligence. If David even cared a little bit about those people and his son, his grand plan for escape would have amounted to more than "Let's just drive South through the woods until we run out of gas and die."

The entire plot is just so obviously contrived to lead to that "tragic" moment at the end of the film. And it's just so devoid of reason to begin with, that the effect of it should be lost on anyone even half awake during the film.

Then on top of it we have the whole "ironic" (more like completely fucking ridiculous) arrival of the army convoy IMMEDIATELY after that happens, along with the magical disappearance of the mist.

I'm sorry, but no amount of reasoning can justly defend such a half-assed, asinine script.
 
I don't know. I get what he was trying to do with the ending, but it just doesn't work for me. If they left out the army stuff and just had David get eaten by something or whatever I wouldn't have minded as much...but with the army, it was too much.

Also I generally get pissed off when bad stuff happens to babies & kids in movies. It just turns me off. Take "The Hills Have Eyes" for example...speaking of B monster flicks. Pretty cool movie for what it was, but if the mutants had killed the baby I'd have hated that too.
 
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