Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Let me just say this right now, I FRICKEN LOVE THIS MOVIE, this is one of, if not THE, most underrated movie I have ever seen. It isn't a film that's hated by a lot of people, although some fans of the book don't care for it, I actually saw a comment saying Klaus was supposed to have glasses...who cares? Hey, Hermione was supposed to have extremely long buck teeth until the middle of the fouth Harry Potter book, you don't hear us fans of the Harry Potter books complaning. Wow I got off on a tangent, well anyway, this film is just not remembered by most people. It did OK at the box office, it made it's money back, but it didn't make what the Harry Potter series was making, as in around $900,000,000.

Ok, first I do love the book series, I only own three of them, but I have read all of them (by the way, Snicket is writing another series set in the same universe, thank you). This film is actually based on the first three books in the series, and let me just say, this is one of the best book to film adabtations I've seen. I'm serious, this film follows the books very well. Are there differences? Of course. But that's a film adabtation, some books just can't be literally put from book to screen, for one they would be too damn long, and two some things don't work in books, especially diolougue. True some movies do leave out a little too much, the main reason Order of the Phonix is my least favorite Potter movie, but this film brings in all the important plot elements from the books.

The acting is great, Emily Browning and Liam Aikan need more work, sure Browning was in a few things including Sucker Punch (which I never saw), but these two were Violet and Klaus. The twins who played Sunny did good, and Jim Carrey as Count Olaf, well, in my opinion one of his best roles. He is so over the top funny, yet is also sinister and caniving, I can't imagine anyone else in this role. And the rest of the cast is good too.

The production design and special effects are fantastic. I never realized that some of the backgrounds were painted in, and despite being eight years old, the special effects work still looks good. The film just looks cool, very gothic.

Are there some things I don't like, sure, Timothy Spall as Mr. Poe could be a little wooden at times. Like when he tells the orphans that their parents died and their house was gone. There are a few parts of the book that were done better than in the film. And maybe it is a little too comedic, the tone of the film constantly switches between comedic and dark, most of the time it works but sometimes it doesn't. And that Incredibly Deadly Viper is definently starting to show CGI.

Overall, I love this movie. Is it perfect? No. But it is one of my favorite book to film adabtations to date. The film may not be for everyone, but I think that even if you haven't read the books, you should still get a few laughs out of it.