Warning: spoilers ahead.
The long awaited John Green book adaption, "Paper Towns," hit the box office last Friday, July 24. If you are among the few who don't know John Green, he has previously written other hit young adult novels such as "The Fault In Our Stars" and "Looking For Alaska." Last summer's release of "The Fault in Our Stars" took the box office by storm, making $48 million in its first weekend and totaling somewhere around $300 million currently. So, naturally, the expectations surrounding "Paper Towns" were high, especially for loyal John Green readers.
According to box office predictions, "Paper Towns" was not expected to do nearly as well as "The Fault In Our Stars," with an estimate of producing $25 million at the box office in its first weekend, mostly due to its significantly less popularity in book sales. However, after this weekend's debut, results are showing that it made only about $12.5 million, with critics speculating whether or not the shootings in Lafayette had any effect on this week's ratings on films across the board.
Numbers and other adaptations aside, the inspirational young adult story of "Paper Towns" is eye-opening with characters like Margo Roth Spiegelmen, a seemingly fearless and bold girl, and Quentin "Q" Jacobsen, an awkward yet lovable band kid who plays by the rules. Margo, Q's childhood love, disappears the day after she spontaneously shows up to his window with a plot for revenge and a request for a car and getaway driver. This sends Q on a wild goose chase as he attempts to decipher her clues, since he is convinced that if he finds the girl he can claim his prize. Throughout the story, Quentin finds himself in all kinds of new rule-breaking situations realizing the value in a change of routine and living without fear of failure or punishment.
When Q finally realizes where Margo has disappeared to, he and his friends take a spontaneous road trip all the way from Orlando to New York City, thus the climax. However, the problem with the movie plot lies here. In the book, the spontaneity of the trip was much more dramatic, as Quentin and friends decide to ditch graduation and hop in the van before Margo leaves her spot, which she has indicated will be vacated in 24 hours. Whereas, in the movie, they leave right before prom and their only incentive is to get back in time for the dance, which seems highly trivial compared to the whole concept of John Green's deeper meaning.
Margo is constantly preaching about how "paper-like" the towns seem to be, with "paper people" whose lives seem relatively the same: go to school, graduate, go to college, get married, have kids, white picket fence, etc. So the idea of rushing back home for prom simply undermines the whole concept of Margo's character. Furthermore, when Quentin stubbornly finds Margo, the meeting is mediocre and bland. The book did a much better portrayal of the emotions of anger, confusion, happiness, and grief that both characters felt about the journey they were on to finding themselves. Quentin is just heartbroken that Margo didn't actually expect for Q to find her and isn't in love with him, so Margo does her best to apologize. And there was no closure whatsoever with Lacey?! Margo's best friend, who was also along for the ride, goes home early with the prom squad in the movie and, presumably, never talks to Margo again.
Although, the movie adaptation seemed to be pretty anticlimactic and contradicts the original idea of John Green's novel, there were some stellar elements within the movie. For example, the standout performance by Cara Delevingne as Margo, Q's dream of Margo to reintegrate her when she is gone, Justice Smith as sensitive boyfriend Radar, and finally Ansel Elgort's cameo. These choices were beyond fantastic as the actors performed great and the film makers took use of the movie element to create better perspective that the book couldn't.
So even though loyal John Green readers like me would probably have liked a longer film adaption to include things such as Sea World, a Lacey character development, and a better executed plot, the movie was not a total disappointment. If you're looking for plot accuracy, "Paper Towns" can't stand up to "The Fault In Our Stars," but will still impress with other cinematic features.
If you take away anything from the movie, it's probably that you should read the book to realize what amazing and life changing concepts you're missing out on.
