Review of Odd Thomas (2013) by Cheyne L — 07 Jun 2014

Can any film adaptation of a best-selling book even come close to challenging 'odd thomas' for that most coveted title of 'worst movie of the year'.. ??? ... firstly, why does this movie exist? if there was something remarkable in the source material to justify such a massive creative misfire, it's been so completely removed from my awareness that this movie must have been made for other reasons.

. maybe the film-makers have loved this book since the first edition and wanted to adapt it.. maybe the rights to the source material were going, so they had no choice but to create the film they were obligated to make, because try as they might to flip the rights, the future of this movie's reputation had been sealed.

. all the elements of fantasy and the paranormal on display have been done before (and better at that), but these fantastic elements are so randomly crammed together, the main characters are as lost within the movie world as much as their audience.

. our protagonist, first name 'odd' last name 'thomas' as if the use of the world 'odd' as an adjective just literally fell too short for it's job.. there are angry ghosts that look real, but they have zero ability to interact in the third dimension, I mean, they can't even be heard, the mouth is open but nothing (of substance) comes out.

. there's also inter-dimensional demons that are in a constant state of disintegration and materialization, and they swarm around earth-life like moths to the flame, but their actual threat level is basically zero, the most threatening aspect of their exsistence lies in how annoying it is when you're trying to finish your chores except you can barely see what you're trying to do because they like hanging out so much.

. there's also odd's girlfriend issues, which if you haven't caught on yet, are as elementally worthless to the story as everything else, pretty sure one girl doesn't even exist, but unlike 'fight club' or 'the sixth sense', their exsistence at all could have used a few extra looksies by the continuity experts.

. this movie feels like 'proof' that the film-makers have the chops to make something truly great, but great material was never in this equation.. it's not that it's the worst movie of all time, but it does settle for mediocrity in such a flashy way, it's unforgivable.

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