Review of Paper Towns (2015) by Robert B — 12 Jan 2016

I had heard that this was better than The Fault In Our Stars. Sadly, I do not think so. TFioS dealt with some really mature themes and story that made the contrast of young people dealing with really interesting and it sort of heightened the story beyond just a puffy high school film. However, Paper Towns almost openly embraces it's formulaic plotline and really mushy boring lead in Nat Wolff's Q.

Overall, the film is good, it's just not blow you away good. It's what you've seen before; nothing is unexpected (especially if you've read the book) and the direction is almost tongue-in-cheek-ily "Did you see that? Cause it's coming full circle later." kind of storytelling. The casting was VERY good though, everyone played their part really well - it's just that the characters aren't quite as deep as you would want them to be. Margot Roth Spiegelman, in particular, (and I remember feeling this way from the book too) just doesn't go anywhere - her character doesn't learn or grow, she's just this fairytale unicorn goal line for Q to aim at and strive toward and then she just gallops off at the end of the movie, as you'd expect. There's some good humor throughout, but never really anything LOL-worthy, y'know? Just chuckles.

It also probably doesn't help that I'm hot off of seeing Me And Earl And The Dying Girl earlier this week - that was more closer to the Fault In Our Stars style story arc.

I'd say see it in theaters if you're a fan of John Green stuff, so hopefully ticket sales can get us to a Looking For Alaska film - or you can wait for VOD.