Hey everyone, I spontaneously went to see Paper Towns the other day and I thought I'd give you all a review of it. Perhaps it can help you see whether it's worth watching or not.
The Background
Paper Towns was originally written by John Green in 2008 and became this mystery, comedy-drama film directed by Jake Schreier. It is about a young boy called Quentin (Nat Wolff) who falls in love with his neighbour Margo (Cara Delevingne) who moves in across the road from him. Margo recruits Quentin to help her prank her friends who had betrayed her. Margo mysteriously disappears the next day and Quentin feels it is his duty to go and find her. With a few friends of his; Ben (Austin Abrams), Marcus 'Radar' (Justice Smith), Angela (Jaz Sinclair) and Lacey (Halston Sage) they all set off on the mission to find Margo using the clues she's left Quentin.
My Thoughts
I'm in a bit of a predicament here because I haven't had the chance of reading the book before seeing the film and I always like to read books before the film adaptations so I know what they've missed out and what they've done right/wrong etc. Clearly, Paper Towns was made in the wake of the huge hit The Fault In Our Stars (which I also reviewed here) and there is even a cameo from a certain star from that film too. However, I have to say this film was one of the most blandest, weirdest and most boring films I have ever watched. I just didn't.. get it.
There was a huge buzz around Cara Delevingne being cast as Margo but this model turned actress just did not impress me one bit. I didn't feel like she was bad at acting either but she didn't stun me with anything else either. She plays some kind weird rebel who just disappears literally half an hour in and becomes some sort of cliché rather than a girl who actually thinks and feels things. Possibly the result of being written by a male, I think.
The film just plods along with Quentin running around with puppy dog, loved up eyes looking for clues and dragging his friends on some ridiculous road trip to find her. It's portrayed to be some sort of comedy film.. I did not laugh at all once. One of Quentin's sidekicks, Ben, is seemingly placed in the film to throw out these one liners and act like some player who sleeps with loads of girls. He was not funny one bit and in all honesty, made me cringe for pretty much all of the film.
The ending of the film was even worse and just left you thinking, was there even a point in making this book into a film? I think the answer is no. Clearly, The Fault In Our Stars was a big hit with young, starry-eyed teenage girls who believe in all the stupid cliché's and quotes from these books which they plaster all over their Facebook and Twitter so they made Paper Towns with the same hope. I just thought the whole thing was boring and pointless. Perhaps the book has something more to it but the film hasn't left me wanting to read it right now.
Here's the trailer
Have you seen this? What did you think of it?
Thankyou for reading.
Laura.
