My thoughts on the After movie.
Warning, this post contains spoilers.
So like many of you I was very excited when they announced, that they were making a movie based off the After book. Although I wasn’t 100% happy with the casting, the movie convinced me with every person that was casted.
Like Inanna as Molly, Khadijha as Steph everyone did a great job on portraying the characters.
The chemistry between the two main characters Hardin and Tessa was amazing. It wasn’t awkward or cringe to watch these two fall in love. They were very cute. Jo has done a phenomenal job on playing Tessa. Her acting was spot on, she was 1000% Tessa. Unbelievable.
I know people always say, that you can’t/shouldn’t compare a movie to the book. That’s right, because in this case you can’t fit every single detail in a 1h 46 min. long movie. It is impossible.
Anna said from the beginning, that they had to change a few things in order to focus more on the love story of Hardin and Tessa. And that was done. The whole movie was concentrating on their love story.
Tessa is like the Tessa we know from the books. A good girl, doing what her mother says (to a certain point in the movie) is good in school and has good grades. Her behaviour around Hardin and his friends was exactly portrayed like from the book. Very good. I really liked that.
Hardin on the other side has undergone some changes. Throughout the trailers and teasers we could see, that he was a lot more softer and calmer than we know him from the books. Which is kinda good, I mean at some points in the books he was too aggressive or too moody. Idk.
But they toned him down too much. Like that wasn’t Hardin from the books at all.
Due to the pg13 rating, swearing wasn’t allowed. Which for me is such a big part. That’s Hardin. It’s okay if he is not as aggressive as in the book, but let him swear at some points. It just fits with his character.
Another thing that annoyed me was, that the movie was very rushed. They were so many scenes. But then the scenes were so short and sometimes really unnecessary. Like at the beginning, where Tessa is sitting in the cafe a studying. Hardin, Molly and Zed come in and order something. Tessa and Hardin look at each other for a little bit and that’s the scene. That’s wasted time for me. I hoped, that there would be more scenes at the beginning where they would talk, simply just getting to know each other. The frat party was like the third time they had seen each other. The first two times were very short and they didn’t speak that much. How can you already feel so much for someone if you don’t know them. And for us, as the audience it was like I blinked and they were already almost kissing. For me that was too rushed. I get it, they don’t have that much time to develop their story but they could’ve made some changes to make that happen.
Also I feel like some of the scenes,that we have seen in the trailer or teasers were missing in the movie.
What also bothered me is that Zed had such a small role in the movie. I know the movie is focusing on Tessa and Hardins love story but for those who have read the books, you know that Zed has a big part in Tessas life. If you could say that. Well movie Zed had what, 3 lines? Not more. He seemed very unnecessary. I mean Jace had a bigger part in the movie than Zed. Even a bigger part than Karen and Ken.
I was sad that we didn’t see them much. Only at their wedding.
As we all know, there are a few scenes that aren’t in the book, like the library scene or the aquarium scene.
I liked those scenes. They were cute. It was a nice touch.
Overall the love story seemed a little rushed, they were some montages of the two of them which were funny but they could’ve used that time for them to show us more of their story. To show us the depth of their love and love story.
What was also missing were the erotic scenes if you can say that.
A big part of the book is Tessa discovering her sexuality. The sexual side of a relationship. I thought, because It was a big part of the books it would be a big part of the movie too.
Well it wasn’t. I don’t know if they cut it out, or if they didn’t want to do it from the beginning. But they weren’t many hot scenes. For example the lake scene. Where Hardin is pleasuring Tessa. Well that was done in 5 seconds. I didn’t realise at first if he was doing what I thought he was doing. Because it wasn’t clear. I know it is a pg13 movie, but again I wonder if they knew it from the beginning. Meaning if they wanted it to be that way. Because that’s not it. It was poorly done and not really sexy or anything like that.
Also their first time at the wedding wasn’t filmed that great. The making out and undressing part was done good. But then they showed they faces for a few seconds and done. Like they could’ve left that out. To leave it to us, to imagine it or whatever. That aspect overall was really missing.
I hope if they do a second movie, that they will change that.
The movie should’ve been more mature and in depth. It was too much of a teenage romance movie.
What I disliked the most was the bet. I mean if you can even call it like that.
We all know, that in the books Hardin makes a bet on taking Tessas virginity. We know its cruel,m but we have read it. It isn’t as shocking if it would’ve happened in the movie.
They changed the freaking bet. At the frat party when they were playing truth or dare (when Tessa left) Hardin said that his dare is, to make Tessa fall in love with him and then break up with her. Therefore breaking her heart.
I felt so disappointed. Cheated.
It seemed like Anna was ashamed of what she wrote and wanted to make up for it.
Or maybe like I said before, they wanted a pg13 movie from the beginning so they changed a lot of things. So that many more people could watch it and therefore earn more money. At the end it’s all about the money.
For me they didn’t stay true to the books. I know you can’t have everything in a movie, but these big parts like the bet, their character overall the story. It shouldn’t be changed.
For me it looked like a different movie. Meaning it had almost nothing to do with the book.
It wasn’t the Hessa love story that we fell in love with.
I was, am disappointed. Maybe I had high hopes. But I didn’t think, that they would change such important parts which are the “soul of the book”.
Ahh what I forgot to say, Hardins nightmares weren’t included. But that’s something we knew beforehand. What I didn’t like at all was when and how Hardin told Tessa what happened to his mother(which he also explained very vaguely). They were at the wedding sitting at a table and everyone was listening to Ken’s speech.
I thought that this was the worst way possible how and when he told her. And as he told her idk it didn’t seem like it would have a big deal in their story or his life.
It was weirdly done sadly. Another important part not done right in my opinion.
So these are my thoughts, if you have seen the movie tell me your thoughts! Or tell me after you see it in the next few days. I am very curious to hear your guys thoughts.
Thanks for reading all of this, excuse me for any mistakes, english is my third language.
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