Book to Big Screen: Paper Towns

1:12 PM Serena 0 Comments

Paper Towns, based on the bestselling novel by John Green, was released into theaters Thursday night. It stars Cara Delevingne, Nat Wolff, and others and was directed by Jake Schreier and produced by Wyck Godfrey, who also produced The Fault in Our Stars. Even though I haven't read the book in almost three years, I was still excited to see it brought to life.

Here's the trailer, if you haven't already seen it/would like to watch it again:

*Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Paper Towns movie. Read at your own risk.*

I liked the movie adaption, though things were of course changed/ left out. I figured my thoughts would be most effectively shown in list form, so that's what I'm going to do. If you want a list full of just things that are different in the movie, check out this piece MTV did.

The ending was different, and it irked me a bit. Mainly because I don't think it fully captured Margo the way she was intended to be seen. Margo is more surprised than angry to see Q in the movie (In Roscoe, NY, not an abandoned building in Agloe, the ACTUAL PAPER TOWN, by the way), but a huge part of who Margo is as a character is that she didn't want to be found. It was frustrating to see it unravel so differently.
In the scene where the guys are going into the abandoned strip mall for the first time, Ben is drunk, and he says that singing helps him with fear. All three boys are mildly terrified of going on, so they start singing the Pokemon theme song together. It is hilarious and awesome and everything good in the world. It's definitely my favorite movie scene, and I'm so glad it exists.
The cast is incredible, and their character portrayal is so on point, Nat Wolff's in particular. Nat was Quentin.
Related to #2: The cast really fit together. In some movies, you can tell that the cast didn't really mesh, and the chemistry isn't there. That's not the case here. The Ben-Radar-Q Trio played best friends like they really had known each other forever.
Somehow all the recent YA book to movie adaptions have had gorgeous soundtracks, and Paper Towns was no exception. The soundtrack featured great artists, like Vance Joy and Vampire Weekend, and the music fit the vibe of the story well. If you get the chance, do a full album listen through because it's good stuff.
This isn't a major thing, and I realize that it didn't need to be included. I would have loved to see the Seaworld break in scene on screen because it's my favorite part in the book. *shrugs*
Ansel Elgort has a cameo in the scene where they make a gas station stop on their road trip to Margo. That's right. Ansel Elgort. In another gas station scene. YEAH. (This one was much less emotionally draining, but STILL). I was not prepared.