The movie still revolved around the character of Malorie, and her trying to get to a safe haven with two young children. Most of the characters were different, and the conflicts in the story were a little less obvious. However, at two hours and four minutes, it does go on a little long and it should have been edited down a little bit.
Malorie, in the movie, seems to have a more tender heart in the movie than she does in the book, and I think this adds and detracts from her character. It gives her a little depth, but it also takes away from the strong will that she has in the story, the will that makes her seem like she is protecting the children, but also not giving them the love that they deserve. The children are still called simple names, or have the same lack of names, yet they are more like children in the movie. In fact, I fell in love with the little girl, and felt both pity and enjoyed her for her strength.
The sister of Malorie is different, her name is Jessica, and she ends up dying in a different way in the movie than she does in the book. The whole idea of Malorie is a little different, especially since she is played by Sandra Bullock, who looks great but is not a twenty-something young woman. Malorie also doesn’t share an apartment with her sister, nor does she find out she is pregnant in the beginning of the movie, which I think was a bad decision on the directors/producer’s part.
The people in the house where Malorie ends up are not the same either. They have different interactions, in the house, and there isn’t a bad “Don” character in the film as there was in the book. I feel like the film tried to hard to create relationships for the characters which didn’t need to be created. The movie was too polite, when is shouldn’t have been, and created conflict in characters that wasn’t necessary. The guy who takes down the house in both the movie and the book is also different, which I didn’t think fit. I don’t think someone needs to be insane to be able to survive the monsters we aren’t supposed to look at.
And lastly, just that point. Why do we keep making movies and writing books where the creatures or monsters aren’t seen? I think we already know that man is inhumane to man, and we hurt each other because we can, but why do we focus so much on that in these movies and novels? Why can’t we have a monster, and only have that monster? Why do we need to be reminded that humans are monsters? And the ending of this was a little too loose, to much placating. The novel had a much more realistic ending, the ending with a woman not yet willing to trust others with her children, the children she had been training and protecting for four years, alone. The book wasn’t great, but the movie doesn’t really stand up to it.