2
This review may contain spoilers
Stripped everything that made ORV good
They turned Dokja into a nervous loser. I could have accepted various other changes but ruining Dokja's character from an unabashedly confident, strong, incredibly smart on-the-go thinker, and strong-willed character who LOVED Three Ways To Survive The Apocalypse (TWSA) into a weak-minded, loser-ish, selfish man who hates TWSA? And on top of that they used his trauma to turn him into becoming a murdeous bully. Why? They also got rid of his main trauma. My heart actually broke with the way he was portrayed in the movie. I admired Dokja in the webtoon and that's why so many things made 0 sense in the movie.
SPOILERS/COMPARISONS
Dokja's reality is now the novel that he alone read which is what gave him his confidence and even arrogance in several instances. He never lowered himself to anyone. Not the Dokkaebis, not the constellations (which are barely given importance in the movie whereas they are crucial in the webtoon), not even when he faced the protagonist Yoo Joonghyuk, whom he admired in the novel. In the webtoon, he challenges Joonghyuk to throw him off the bridge. He also NEVER calls himself the prophet but let's Joonghyuk think whatever. And because they got rid of the fourth wall skill, he couldn't block off Junghyeok's lie detection in the movie. The fourth wall is an incredibly useful protective skill for Dokja and I don't understand why they decided to get rid of it. In the movie, he is practically shaking while talking to Junghyeok. Their back and forth in the webtoon is so good. The movie ruined it.
In the novel/webtoon, Dokja levels up his skills extremely quickly because of how in-depth his knowledge is of the book which impresses constellations and their curiosity gets them to sponsor him a lot of coins which just does not come across in the movie and is not given importance. His actions also shock the constellations and that is why BiHyeong agrees that Dokja is impressing them and decides to strike a deal. But in the movie, Dokja has not been impressive in any way. In the train, he is so timid he allowed his boss to take control of the ant box. In the novel, he is the one in charge of the situation and gets everyone scrambling for the insects. He leads the group in every scenario which gets them to trust and respect his leadership. Like telling them to leave the train as soon as possible and run across the bridge. This is why he gets so many constellations who want to sponsor him. And he knows that tying himself to a sponsor early on isn't wise which is why he rejects the selection. In the movie it is Lee Hyeon Seong who tries to escape the train and not Dokja guiding them. They don't explain why he rejects picking a sponsor and barely goes through the list. Can fans of the movie really say they were impressed by Dokja at that point?
Dokja having the fourth wall also helps him to offset the memories of his past haunting him. He also understands the importance of having companions because he read the novel. Because movie Dokja hates the novel, he has no foresight into the importance of his companions either. He even becomes selfish at crucial moments wanting to abandon them and survive alone and his survival comes across as more luck and not active use of his knowledge. The original Dokja also works hard to help them grow their skill set and become more powerful. Movie Dokja is like - oh btw you can use coins to power up.
Honestly I could complain about his rescue of Hui Won (leaving her to breath poison gas), not being able to expose the mayor (who is now a monster for some reason) of killing people for coins and how coins "spill" out rather than directly being transferred to the killer, the kid (Gilyeong) being so much younger than in the webtoon and Bihyung shooting lasers from his eyes. But it's not as important. But little things build a character and they took everything away from Dokja that made him Dokja. Also getting rid of Heewon's backstory of being SAed? This is what explains her anger and her seeking justice. Sang Ah became an average healer instead of a brilliant woman turned assassin.
On top of that they even tried to make Junghyeok a horrible person in the movie when he asks Dokja to ditch the kid while they are surrounded by monsters. Nothing of that sort happens in the webtoon. If anything Joonghyuk tries to get the kid to team up with him. They made him into such a lackluster character. The guy who is supposed to be a looker by the way.
Gong Pildo was also a big character but I can let it go because they didn't have enough time to set up every character.
Also the use of guns in this movie is ridiculous especially for Junghyeok. Even Lee JiHye should not have been using guns. But then they removed any connection to constellations.
The final fight, as everyone said, did not exist in the webtoon. The closest is the lesser dragon disaster which was way above their level that the Dokkaebi acknowledges but in the movie the Dokkaebi is like, yeah let's make this harder. But the situations were entirely different. It was really funny when Junghyeok lay charred to death because if he dies, he actually moves to a parallel timeline and Dokja has 1 less hero in his. But in the movie, everyone dies. Half of those characters were not supposed to be there in this fight. This is the problem when the movies decides to spend all it's budget on a star-studded cast. The director changed the plot so much in order to give everyone importance in a limited time. So now the main character is a shell of himself with no redeeming qualities or useful skills besides strength and even that he seemed tired at many points of the movie.
All that remains in the movie is a lot of different action sequences to wow audiences that have never read the source material and are missing much enjoyment from the original plot and true character of Dokja. Because you could have gotten action from any action movie and disaster scenes from any disaster movie.
I don't normally hand out 1 stars but the director chose to forego the whole OMNISCIENT READER part! They could have made a movie using elements of ORV and called it something else. That would have been better than reducing this incredibly detailed and complex story with great character arcs to action and CGI.
SPOILERS/COMPARISONS
Dokja's reality is now the novel that he alone read which is what gave him his confidence and even arrogance in several instances. He never lowered himself to anyone. Not the Dokkaebis, not the constellations (which are barely given importance in the movie whereas they are crucial in the webtoon), not even when he faced the protagonist Yoo Joonghyuk, whom he admired in the novel. In the webtoon, he challenges Joonghyuk to throw him off the bridge. He also NEVER calls himself the prophet but let's Joonghyuk think whatever. And because they got rid of the fourth wall skill, he couldn't block off Junghyeok's lie detection in the movie. The fourth wall is an incredibly useful protective skill for Dokja and I don't understand why they decided to get rid of it. In the movie, he is practically shaking while talking to Junghyeok. Their back and forth in the webtoon is so good. The movie ruined it.
In the novel/webtoon, Dokja levels up his skills extremely quickly because of how in-depth his knowledge is of the book which impresses constellations and their curiosity gets them to sponsor him a lot of coins which just does not come across in the movie and is not given importance. His actions also shock the constellations and that is why BiHyeong agrees that Dokja is impressing them and decides to strike a deal. But in the movie, Dokja has not been impressive in any way. In the train, he is so timid he allowed his boss to take control of the ant box. In the novel, he is the one in charge of the situation and gets everyone scrambling for the insects. He leads the group in every scenario which gets them to trust and respect his leadership. Like telling them to leave the train as soon as possible and run across the bridge. This is why he gets so many constellations who want to sponsor him. And he knows that tying himself to a sponsor early on isn't wise which is why he rejects the selection. In the movie it is Lee Hyeon Seong who tries to escape the train and not Dokja guiding them. They don't explain why he rejects picking a sponsor and barely goes through the list. Can fans of the movie really say they were impressed by Dokja at that point?
Dokja having the fourth wall also helps him to offset the memories of his past haunting him. He also understands the importance of having companions because he read the novel. Because movie Dokja hates the novel, he has no foresight into the importance of his companions either. He even becomes selfish at crucial moments wanting to abandon them and survive alone and his survival comes across as more luck and not active use of his knowledge. The original Dokja also works hard to help them grow their skill set and become more powerful. Movie Dokja is like - oh btw you can use coins to power up.
Honestly I could complain about his rescue of Hui Won (leaving her to breath poison gas), not being able to expose the mayor (who is now a monster for some reason) of killing people for coins and how coins "spill" out rather than directly being transferred to the killer, the kid (Gilyeong) being so much younger than in the webtoon and Bihyung shooting lasers from his eyes. But it's not as important. But little things build a character and they took everything away from Dokja that made him Dokja. Also getting rid of Heewon's backstory of being SAed? This is what explains her anger and her seeking justice. Sang Ah became an average healer instead of a brilliant woman turned assassin.
On top of that they even tried to make Junghyeok a horrible person in the movie when he asks Dokja to ditch the kid while they are surrounded by monsters. Nothing of that sort happens in the webtoon. If anything Joonghyuk tries to get the kid to team up with him. They made him into such a lackluster character. The guy who is supposed to be a looker by the way.
Gong Pildo was also a big character but I can let it go because they didn't have enough time to set up every character.
Also the use of guns in this movie is ridiculous especially for Junghyeok. Even Lee JiHye should not have been using guns. But then they removed any connection to constellations.
The final fight, as everyone said, did not exist in the webtoon. The closest is the lesser dragon disaster which was way above their level that the Dokkaebi acknowledges but in the movie the Dokkaebi is like, yeah let's make this harder. But the situations were entirely different. It was really funny when Junghyeok lay charred to death because if he dies, he actually moves to a parallel timeline and Dokja has 1 less hero in his. But in the movie, everyone dies. Half of those characters were not supposed to be there in this fight. This is the problem when the movies decides to spend all it's budget on a star-studded cast. The director changed the plot so much in order to give everyone importance in a limited time. So now the main character is a shell of himself with no redeeming qualities or useful skills besides strength and even that he seemed tired at many points of the movie.
All that remains in the movie is a lot of different action sequences to wow audiences that have never read the source material and are missing much enjoyment from the original plot and true character of Dokja. Because you could have gotten action from any action movie and disaster scenes from any disaster movie.
I don't normally hand out 1 stars but the director chose to forego the whole OMNISCIENT READER part! They could have made a movie using elements of ORV and called it something else. That would have been better than reducing this incredibly detailed and complex story with great character arcs to action and CGI.
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