SkyOne has tried to tackle the very difficult task of creating a movie based on Terry Pratchett's fantastic universe once again with it's third movie, "Going Postal". Just like those two before it, "The Colour of Magic" and "Hogfather", this title seems randomly picked from the list of Discworld novels - their first movie was based on the 20th, the second on the 1st and 2nd (unsuccessfully trying to merge them into one), this one on the 33rd. While "Hogfather" was a brilliant adaption, with characters and scenes true to the book and a great atmosphere, "The Colour of Magic" was influenced by a terrible arrogance. After having made a near-perfect adaption (as perfect as possible at least) with "Hogfather", "The Colour of Magic" changed a great many things from the books it was allegedly based one: The main character was 40 years older, the plot changed, they tried to cast people who were famous rather than those who fitted the book and they tried to combine two novels into one movie. And the end result was, predictably, very bad, at least if you had read the books before it.
"Going Postal" seems to rectify some of the last adaption's mistakes. The scenery looks much more like it's described in the book and many of the secondary characters are indeed based on the book - with the exception of the main character, Moist von Lipwig, unfortunately. While I do like Richard Coyle, he, as a 38-year-old, cannot convincingly play a character who should be in his mid-20s. And of course a number of changes were made from the book, some irrelevant and partly creative (like the B/W sequences depicting his crimes) and some relevant and stupid (like having Adora ride with him, Angua in the beginning, meeting Reacher Gilt so soon etc.) because they were different precisely to make the story work.
One can hope for further adaptations of Pratchett's works nonetheless and possibly SkyOne will avoid unnecessary changes in their next adaption (we can only hope it's "Night Watch" :-)) and stay true to the book where possible. Still, "Going Postal" is an enjoyable adaption of one of the (imho) best books by Terry Pratchett, despite some changes that will annoy someone who already read the book.
Update: It seems I spoke too soon. When I wrote the review, it was after viewing part 1. Unfortunately, part 2 managed to be much more like "The Colour of Magic" than "Hogfather". Vital, important parts of the plot were either removed or changed (Vetinari keeps the money; Offler was the god who allegedly provided it; Moist chose the message rather than Ridcully - although it was vital to the plot that the wizard did so (because it had many pictures); Adora giving up smoking; etc.) and frankly ridiculous story lines and changes were added (Gilt is now, as a fellow reviewer wrote, more of a James Bond supervillian wannabe rather than a con man like Moist - even to the point of killing Horsefry himself; the overly dramatic scene on the tower at the end; the soppy speech at the end and the "rescue"; etc.)
So I have to revise my initial conclusion, it's far worse than "Hogfather" (9/10) while still being better than "The Colour of Magic" (2/10): 5/10. Hopefully future SkyOne adaptions will rectify those problems.
"Going Postal" seems to rectify some of the last adaption's mistakes. The scenery looks much more like it's described in the book and many of the secondary characters are indeed based on the book - with the exception of the main character, Moist von Lipwig, unfortunately. While I do like Richard Coyle, he, as a 38-year-old, cannot convincingly play a character who should be in his mid-20s. And of course a number of changes were made from the book, some irrelevant and partly creative (like the B/W sequences depicting his crimes) and some relevant and stupid (like having Adora ride with him, Angua in the beginning, meeting Reacher Gilt so soon etc.) because they were different precisely to make the story work.
One can hope for further adaptations of Pratchett's works nonetheless and possibly SkyOne will avoid unnecessary changes in their next adaption (we can only hope it's "Night Watch" :-)) and stay true to the book where possible. Still, "Going Postal" is an enjoyable adaption of one of the (imho) best books by Terry Pratchett, despite some changes that will annoy someone who already read the book.
Update: It seems I spoke too soon. When I wrote the review, it was after viewing part 1. Unfortunately, part 2 managed to be much more like "The Colour of Magic" than "Hogfather". Vital, important parts of the plot were either removed or changed (Vetinari keeps the money; Offler was the god who allegedly provided it; Moist chose the message rather than Ridcully - although it was vital to the plot that the wizard did so (because it had many pictures); Adora giving up smoking; etc.) and frankly ridiculous story lines and changes were added (Gilt is now, as a fellow reviewer wrote, more of a James Bond supervillian wannabe rather than a con man like Moist - even to the point of killing Horsefry himself; the overly dramatic scene on the tower at the end; the soppy speech at the end and the "rescue"; etc.)
So I have to revise my initial conclusion, it's far worse than "Hogfather" (9/10) while still being better than "The Colour of Magic" (2/10): 5/10. Hopefully future SkyOne adaptions will rectify those problems.