Perceived Prejudice against 'LET ME IN'

[flypaper]

First let me say I thought both were great movies. Abby/Eli-Oskar/Owen both teams played the role assigned to them to the hilt and I am in awe of them both and their skills.

But....I wonder if some of the disdain for LMI comes from the fact that it is an Americanized version was produced and shown almost on the heels of the original LTROI. Plus add the fact that LMI, rather than falling through it's arse (which it seems a lot of people thought it would) was shown and came in with some great reviews and a very strong fan base. And then it seemed after its modest success BANG up goes the hackles, out come the teeth and the attacks start. Just wondering if in some of these attacks there might be a touch of American/Hollywood disdain. I've seen prejudice on many other forums with international members so I know its very much alive and well.

I have both DVD's and have read the book, yes I did see 'Let Me In' first, but they are both different enough for me to enjoy it very much. The basic plot may be the same but each picture displays its wares n a different way, different enough that I find them both satisfying.

[JToede]

Yep, welcome to the Great LTROI-LMI Schism, complete with "if-it's-american-it's-bad" attitude and "remake-bad-mantra" bla bla bla bla dur dur derp
There are those of us who has seen both movies and like them. They get wrapped around the axle with there hateful prejudices against the states based on what they see on tv,the net or read in the papers.
For me it's LMI LTROI (the movie) the book. It is an awesome story

[sauvin]

I myself like LTROI a lot better than I do LMI. A whole lot better. As a reversal to the usual trend, I think it's possible I like LMI simply because I do like LTROI, and I can't say that I would have liked it if I hadn't seen the LTROI movie first.

Yea, it's American, blah blah dur derp. Yea, it's a remake. Zz. It's also a re-imagining, a re-interpretation that puts an Eli-like being into a slightly different set of circumstances, and it puts a somewhat difference face on her. In some ways, I kinda like Abby better than I do Eli.

But only in some

[CyberGhostface]

I wonder if some of the disdain for LMI comes from the fact that it is an Americanized version was produced and shown almost on the heels of the original LTROI.

Well yes, I do have issue with the fact that people feel the need to remake foreign films right after they're released. But my issue with LMI comes from the fact that it's little more than a facsimile of the original, and Reeves' dishonesty in promoting the film as being a separate take on the original novel when he just ends up copying the Swedish film verbatim 99% of the time. I have no problems with American films, just bad ones.

If a talented filmmaker like Guillermo del Toro or Spike Jonze were to actually tackle the book, then yes, I'd be all for it.

Plus add the fact that LMI, rather than falling through it's arse (which it seems a lot of people thought it would) was shown and came in with some great reviews and a very strong fan base.

Taking a look at RottenTomatoes, the bulk of the positive reviews for Let Me In were basically "This is a good film but only because the Swedish film was great and this just copies it." or "All that is artful comes from the Swedish film, but at least Reeves didn't muck it up." And so forth. The general gist I got was "It's okay that this is basically the same film, because the original film is subtitled and the target audience won't care."

[EEA]

I like Let The Right One In the most. I just take Let Me In as another take of Oskar and Eli's story. The only problem that I have is that Matt Reeves could have done more but he did not.

[drakkar]

But....I wonder if some of the disdain for LMI comes from the fact that it is an Americanized version was produced and shown almost on the heels of the original LTROI. Plus add the fact that LMI, rather than falling through it's arse (which it seems a lot of people thought it would) was shown and came in with some great reviews and a very strong fan base. And then it seemed after its modest success BANG up goes the hackles, out come the teeth and the attacks start. Just wondering if in some of these attacks there might be a touch of American/Hollywood disdain. I've seen prejudice on many other forums with international members so I know its very much alive and well.

I believe this is a bit complex. Yes, Swedish and Norwegian film producers (probably others also, but I don't know that) are generally eager to have their films remade, and normally the deal is struck in the US.

At the same time, they don't believe/expect the remake will be nearly as good as the original, but even then they want to sell the film rights to get easy money. ..and normally the remake isn't as good as the original, but of course there are exceptions.
One of the producers of LTROI/LMI spoke at a North-Swedish film festival last year, where he just *shrugged* and said LMI bombed, but we got our money. Period. It is somewhere on the wed, cannot remember where I found it.

So yes, I think it is a bit of disrespect for remakes around, also among those who are selling the rights, perhaps just because they are remakes and not original.

Me? I like LTROI way better than LMI, however I think LMI is a good film, and much better than normal from a remake.

[danielma]

Me? I like LTROI way better than LMI, however I think LMI is a good film, and much better than normal from a remake.

Double this for me...I don't think there is anything wrong with LMI, I just like LTROI a lot more. I give Reeves credit though for making a film that is far better then I ever thought it would have been

[flypaper]

But....I wonder if some of the disdain for LMI comes from the fact that it is an Americanized version was produced and shown almost on the heels of the original LTROI. Plus add the fact that LMI, rather than falling through it's arse (which it seems a lot of people thought it would) was shown and came in with some great reviews and a very strong fan base. And then it seemed after its modest success BANG up goes the hackles, out come the teeth and the attacks start. Just wondering if in some of these attacks there might be a touch of American/Hollywood disdain. I've seen prejudice on many other forums with international members so I know its very much alive and well.

I believe this is a bit complex. Yes, Swedish and Norwegian film producers (probably others also, but I don't know that) are generally eager to have their films remade, and normally the deal is struck in the US.

At the same time, they don't believe/expect the remake will be nearly as good as the original, but even then they want to sell the film rights to get easy money. ..and normally the remake isn't as good as the original, but of course there are exceptions.
One of the producers of LTROI/LMI spoke at a North-Swedish film festival last year, where he just *shrugged* and said LMI bombed, but we got our money. Period. It is somewhere on the wed, cannot remember where I found it.

So yes, I think it is a bit of disrespect for remakes around, also among those who are selling the rights, perhaps just because they are remakes and not original.

Me? I like LTROI way better than LMI, however I think LMI is a good film, and much better than normal from a remake.

So goes the world of business, and even though LMI only made 24 Million total world wide I would think that it passed LTROI total take. Yes I know money isn't the measure of talent but it is a good measure of audience interest. Even with its decent reviews LMI being a vampire movie that very well may hindered its popularity. ...
And as far as the movies themselves....to me they are like a pair of gloves, left and right both have five fingers, both can keep you worm, but in reality both a vastly different.

I enjoyed the take of each director, of the different teams of actors, but I'll admit not liking to deal with subtitles....In LMI I loved being able to here and understand the spoken word in my native tongue with all its inflections, to me that was a real plus.

[flypaper]

Me? I like LTROI way better than LMI, however I think LMI is a good film, and much better than normal from a remake.

Double this for me...I don't think there is anything wrong with LMI, I just like LTROI a lot more. I give Reeves credit though for making a film that is far better then I ever thought it would have been

I see your take has mellowed some from your earlier postings

As an English speaker didn't you loose anything by having to deal with subtitles? I know even though I love the movie I did. I felt that not being able to speak the lingo I lost a lot of the context of what was said by not being able to read into the spoken inflections?

[flypaper]

I like Let The Right One In the most. I just take Let Me In as another take of Oskar and Eli's story. The only problem that I have is that Matt Reeves could have done more but he did not.

I feel if he had done more as you want then it would not be a homage to LTROI.

This is another thing that I noticed about those how dislike/hate LMI one branch goes on about how it isn't enough like LTROI and the other branch goes on about how its to much like LTROI.