Day 40: The Tyrant of France

There's an argument to be made in the favour of modernisation, of making things in the way that we would, to improve them, make them better. Such is the case with episodes 4 and 5 of the serial The Reign of Terror, which have been animated by an Australian group for my viewing pleasure. And as such, I am in two minds as to what is on screen. On the one hand, it's nice to be able to see what happens, instead of just watching a series of still images with a soundtrack laid over them. Also, I am not going to get in the way of people wishing to put their own interpretation of various items. We may live in a culture of remakes and reboots, but let's not forget that without these we would not have the various adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, Dracula or Frankenstein for us to view and enjoy other's interpretations on these classic characters. However, it must be stated that what makes it to screen is complete and utter crap. For a start, not a lot happens in this episode, so the director feels a need to insert action where there is none. Whereas static cameras can add a nice feeling of being able to know what is actually going on, as has been done for the previous three episodes, this time close ups have been added liberally, so that each scene is not complete without seven, at least. The camera is in a perpetual state of movement as well, meaning that the viewer is left feeling like someone with particularly bad eyesight, never being able to focus on one thing before the next one comes flying along. And the editing on this is spectacularly bad. Think, for a moment, with one particular scene featuring changes of shot 5 times over the course of one brief sentence. Sometimes change is good, and should be welcomed. And sometimes, we should try and stay more true to the original, because if it ain't broke, don't fix it.