Monday Movie Night - Odd Thomas

I am starting a new weekly post in a bid to get me writing more, I hit a bit of a road block a while back and it has been a hard slog getting back to here, I feel ready to introduce something new.
my aim is to review a different film each week, they will be a mixture of new and old film and as a few world cinema films. We use two paid online movie services so lots will be from them and I warn you the majority will be horror as I honestly can't get enough of it! a vast amount of my spare time is spent reading and watching horror. Don't expect a fabulous film 2014 style review it will be my views and what I loved or loathed about it, I will try not to reveal any important plot information.

The first film I am going to talk about is Odd Thomas, I love the book series by Dean Koontz they are one of my favourite reads as the characters are really easy to connect with and love.

The film stars Anton Yelchin, Addison Timlin and Wilem Dafoe in what I think of as the lead roles. Filming was complete in 2013 but seemed to take an age to reach DVD and the film sites, the reasons for this are online if you fancy finding out more but my main focus is the film itself.
The story centres around the life of Odd, who really does live up to his name, it follows the story from the book fairly well but a few bits are missing that I think would have been fun, there really needed to be more elvis. The special effects are brilliant but I did sometimes thing they were used in strange ways that weren't needed and tended to distract more than draw me in.

Anton Yelchin was a brilliant choice for Odd, he comes across well and makes you believe in odds carefree, kind soul, I adored him as Chekov in Star Trek and he was enjoyable in Fright Night too. This film isn't about blood and gore, the story is meant to be gripping and a little bit surreal which is how the book made me feel, Yelchin does a good job of making you believe in Odd Thomas and his strange and quirky life. Timlin Plays Stormy, Odds Love interest and although I adore her, she is not quite stormy for me , I think she will grow on me, but stormy in the books has a real presence about her you understand why Odd is drawn to her and her him, she was a little bit middle of the road for me in that area, not awful but not perfect either. I plan on watching it again to see if she browns on me as I think she will.

One thing the film did really well for me, were the emotional scenes, they had me sobbing which to be fair is not difficult but it hit me just like the book did. I cried on a very busy tube when I first read this book.

If you fancy a bit of fun with a supernatural slightly Odd film give this a go, it isn't high brow or intelligent but it is fun, has a couple of jumpy bits and quite honest it was perfect for a relaxed film nigt for me! I am off to find my book now to give the story another read, I think it will be number four this time around.

The Verdict

3.5 out of 5 stars