[fidgit]

Watched John Dies At The End last night (right after I read y'all posting about it!) and I've got to ask: did any of you read the book?

I enjoyed it, and I'm glad I didn't skip it, but there were some frustrating changes that I don't think needed to go the way they did (makes me wonder how much more they filmed but edited out).

Example: he finds out straight away that Bark Lee is John calling him via the soy sauce. It's been a while since I've read it, but I seem to recall that Bark Lee got to actually talk to David himself for a while - didn't he and John have to fight over who got control of the body? This was relevant since he'd bought that bratwurst.

I'm pretty sure, and I was *hanging out* for it, that there's a scene in the book where he goes past a McDonalds, and Ronald is all demonic, until he looks again and it's the normal sitting-on-a-bench-Ronald. Now, I didn't expect Maccas to get on board with that, but invent a mascot and do that, that would have been neato.

But the thing that bugged me the most, was the entire beginning scene. Ok, it's a nice mental puzzle "is it the same axe", but as far as the movie goes, that's it. We never get any return to why that was even something he was pondering. Of course, if you've read the book you know that the reason David was even contemplating this was because the Other Side were replacing people with duplicates that had their memories, but could be activated to be soldiers in the war to take over Our Earth. This was super important since he finds his own dead body in the shed, and realises he's a duplicate, and has to wrestle with weather that means he's still himself or a new axe..

Oh and the very end, where you think he's won, only to have the bad guys pop up and show him they could kill his girlfriend at any time, regardless of how safe he thinks she is. End's on such a down note! "and that's what life is, a series of down note..."

Oh and the thing where they made his girlfriend and another character the same character... but actually that I was fine with, I think it worked so long as you didn't care that they just sucked her story out, and it would have been a crowded movie if they hadn't.

On balance though, I liked it. I'm just glad I read the book first.