Paper Towns

            “Paper Towns” is the newest film adaptation of a John Green novel. The movie was directed by Jake Schreier, and the screenplay was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. It stars Nat Wolff, Cara Delevingne, Austin Abrams, Justice Smith, Halston Sage and Jaz Sinclair. I was very excited to see this movie.

“Paper Towns” is my favorite John Green book, and I was thrilled that there would be a movie version. I thought that the adaption of “The Fault in Our Stars” was well made, so I was expecting the same with this movie. That was not the case. It was just an average teen movie. The only reason I even slightly enjoyed it was because it was based off of a book that I love. It is rated as a rotten movie on Rotten Tomatoes with only a 55 percent. The story is not the problem though. It’s the way it is presented.

In the film, Quentin or Q (Wolff) has been in love with Margo Roth Spiegelman (Delevingne) since they were young kids. They saw a dead body together, which sparks an interest in mysteries for Margo. Ever since then, she has been very adventurous and has even become a bit of a mystery to everyone who knows her. After a night of pranks on her friends who did her wrong, Margo disappears. Quentin takes it upon himself to find her. The outcome provides a very important message.

This message makes sense throughout the reading of the whole book. However, it doesn’t fit the movie very well. The ending was changed in the movie in order to get the point across. It doesn’t make sense at all when looking at the rest of the movie. If the whole movie matched the tone and feeling of the end, it would have been much better.

I think they did a good job of including most of the parts the fans of the book really wanted to see, but it wasn’t done well. They only showed one fast pit stop scene and left out some of the fantastic comments the characters made in the process. They showed the “great white wall of cow,” but they never actually called it that or included the best lines from the characters about it. I was also very disappointed about the way they removed the one eyebrow. My favorite part about that was wondering if he would remove the other eyebrow or draw on the one that was removed. It’s all those little humorous moments that I missed the most.

           Speaking of humorous moments, Ben was so hilarious in the book. They tried to showcase that in the movie, but failed. I was completely let down by Abrams. I didn’t find him funny in the film, and that ruined some of the best parts for me. Drunk Ben in the movie was not good at all, it was just sad. I thought Wolff did a pretty average job, but he was much better in his smaller role in “The Fault in Our Stars.” Smith was also nothing special in his role. The girls did pretty well though. I can’t say I was that impressed by Delevingne, but Sage and Sinclair’s performances were enjoyable. Sage did a good job and was my favorite part of the movie, even though she had a smaller role. She was actually believable as Lacey. Sinclair surprised me. In the book, Angela stood out to me the least. I liked her, she just wasn’t as memorable. Sinclair brought Angela more to the forefront of the group.

          All of these things took a toll on the film. I wish it had lived up to my expectations, but it definitely did not. If you are thinking of watching the movie, please read the book first. If you watch the movie first, it could ruin the book for you. That would be tragic because the book is fantastic. I am so disappointed with the way it turned out. Sadly, this is not a movie you need to see.