What we seem to have here is either an adaptation where too many 'cooks' have been involved such that the plot got lost somewhere, or simple a case of the writers not trying to keep the characters and situations in the realms of believability - Too many characters do daft unnecessary things, or events proposed are just daft or ill thought-out.
I'll try listing some example of moments where you roll your eyes due to silly weak/lazy writing (*spoilers*):-
1) Torrence (Eddie Izzard) waking up in a passenger plane careering thought the air. He doesn't ask a single question about why the plane is in trouble. Instead he just gets into a cubicle and fills it with inflatable vests. Wouldn't we all?
2) The plane then happens to crash land (in all the world) right next to/on top of the lead characters. Wow! What a coincidence!
3) In a crazy moment, equalling Indiana Jones surviving an a-bomb by jumping inside a fridge, Izzard comes out of a plane crashing into a city at X hundred miles an hour, alive, with stupid looking comedy character with a blacked face, clothes in tatters and trouser legs ripped and missing. Were the writers drunk? Could this possibly happen? Really?
4) Jo (the news lady) comes out of the underground (which had collapsed because of Izzards plane), wonders around for a minute or two before bumping into our hero and proclaims, "I thought I was the only one"? What in the 2 minutes you've looked love?
5) Our hero and news lady go to the Triffid farms, and off they go into the middle of the farm for no reason other than to risk their lives.
6) At the triffid farm, where X hundreds/thousands of triffids were, they've escaped and killed everyone there. Not a SINGLE triffid is still there even just by random, or sitting by the person it had killed, feeding - in the end that's why the Triffids kill, they sit there feeding on the corpse for X days or weeks... But no, these new Triffids have other agendas, like getting out of the way of our heroes so they don't appear in the episode too soon.
7) We now have ninja tree climbing triffids attacking from the air and scooping folks up off the ground below. Why were they up in these particular trees? Nesting for the night?
8) Why cart Mason and Coker mile and mile away in the back of a truck to then kill them? What's wrong with a back alley? Other than to allow the Triffids to get involved?
9) When Coker throws a bunch of papers out of the plane he's in, they all fall X hundred feet down through the air and land at the feet of our heroes? Wow! Good shot! Laser guided paper!
10) At Bill Mason's father's house, why do Torrent's men all just stand by the fence waiting to be attacked one by one by the triffids. My guess is simply because the script says for them to do that because they're not longer needed.
11) Furthermore, surely driving out of the triffid surrounded house in a one and a half tonne vehicle might have been a good means to survive the triffids?
In short, the writers just seems to have no grasp on keeping their characters/plot/script anywhere within the bounds of believability, and as such you don't believe in the events, and then worse still, don't care about them. To me it just comes across as lazy unintelligent writing.
Why has Torrence's character been made such a major part of this new adaptation? Is the premise of most of the worlds population being blind and starving to death, society falling apart and an ever increasing number of flesh eating plants not enough for the writers to work with? Seemingly not, as they have to invent a big-baddie for us all to hate, and introduce some daft techno-gizmo for triffid communication and daft wooden voodoo masks!
So, even with its simpler/older production values, the depth and darkness shown in the 1981 BBC adaptation puts this modern day one to shame. Why? Because characters and events are handled in a simple and realistic manner so what is seen on screen rings true. I'm sure the writers of that version would have laughed at the thought of suggesting a scene where someone survived crashing into a city at X hundred miles an hour in a jumbo jet, simply by wrapping themselves up in a dozen inflatable vests. Believable? No! So don't include it!
With a simpler more realistic script this could have been a fabulously gritty and dark survival drama. Instead we have some silly over processed hokum. The 1981 version is still a rewarding watch nearly 30 years. This version will be forgotten in 30 days - 5/10
I'll try listing some example of moments where you roll your eyes due to silly weak/lazy writing (*spoilers*):-
1) Torrence (Eddie Izzard) waking up in a passenger plane careering thought the air. He doesn't ask a single question about why the plane is in trouble. Instead he just gets into a cubicle and fills it with inflatable vests. Wouldn't we all?
2) The plane then happens to crash land (in all the world) right next to/on top of the lead characters. Wow! What a coincidence!
3) In a crazy moment, equalling Indiana Jones surviving an a-bomb by jumping inside a fridge, Izzard comes out of a plane crashing into a city at X hundred miles an hour, alive, with stupid looking comedy character with a blacked face, clothes in tatters and trouser legs ripped and missing. Were the writers drunk? Could this possibly happen? Really?
4) Jo (the news lady) comes out of the underground (which had collapsed because of Izzards plane), wonders around for a minute or two before bumping into our hero and proclaims, "I thought I was the only one"? What in the 2 minutes you've looked love?
5) Our hero and news lady go to the Triffid farms, and off they go into the middle of the farm for no reason other than to risk their lives.
6) At the triffid farm, where X hundreds/thousands of triffids were, they've escaped and killed everyone there. Not a SINGLE triffid is still there even just by random, or sitting by the person it had killed, feeding - in the end that's why the Triffids kill, they sit there feeding on the corpse for X days or weeks... But no, these new Triffids have other agendas, like getting out of the way of our heroes so they don't appear in the episode too soon.
7) We now have ninja tree climbing triffids attacking from the air and scooping folks up off the ground below. Why were they up in these particular trees? Nesting for the night?
8) Why cart Mason and Coker mile and mile away in the back of a truck to then kill them? What's wrong with a back alley? Other than to allow the Triffids to get involved?
9) When Coker throws a bunch of papers out of the plane he's in, they all fall X hundred feet down through the air and land at the feet of our heroes? Wow! Good shot! Laser guided paper!
10) At Bill Mason's father's house, why do Torrent's men all just stand by the fence waiting to be attacked one by one by the triffids. My guess is simply because the script says for them to do that because they're not longer needed.
11) Furthermore, surely driving out of the triffid surrounded house in a one and a half tonne vehicle might have been a good means to survive the triffids?
In short, the writers just seems to have no grasp on keeping their characters/plot/script anywhere within the bounds of believability, and as such you don't believe in the events, and then worse still, don't care about them. To me it just comes across as lazy unintelligent writing.
Why has Torrence's character been made such a major part of this new adaptation? Is the premise of most of the worlds population being blind and starving to death, society falling apart and an ever increasing number of flesh eating plants not enough for the writers to work with? Seemingly not, as they have to invent a big-baddie for us all to hate, and introduce some daft techno-gizmo for triffid communication and daft wooden voodoo masks!
So, even with its simpler/older production values, the depth and darkness shown in the 1981 BBC adaptation puts this modern day one to shame. Why? Because characters and events are handled in a simple and realistic manner so what is seen on screen rings true. I'm sure the writers of that version would have laughed at the thought of suggesting a scene where someone survived crashing into a city at X hundred miles an hour in a jumbo jet, simply by wrapping themselves up in a dozen inflatable vests. Believable? No! So don't include it!
With a simpler more realistic script this could have been a fabulously gritty and dark survival drama. Instead we have some silly over processed hokum. The 1981 version is still a rewarding watch nearly 30 years. This version will be forgotten in 30 days - 5/10