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A review by tcgarback
Storm of the Century by Stephen King
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
⭐️⭐️💫
Critical Score: C+
Personal Score: C
From a hugely famous author, with such an exciting title, and the screenplay sold commercially, Storm of the Century warrants so much hype. But it doesn’t deliver on the suspense and epic drama I hoped for. The story is too plain and full of cheesy tropes. It just lacks…a lot. I felt nothing watching this—no dread, no coziness, no amusement. It’s just so bleh.
And don’t get me wrong; it has its moments. This story isn’t terrible. And a lot of people love this miniseries, so obviously there’s something there that I’m missing.
Really, my opinion just shows how good King’s prose is by virtue of how much his typical strengths are missed in this screenplay. The characters lack depth, the themes are shallow, the atmosphere is underwritten. King is no great screenwriter; he’s a natural novelist.
This is more of an issue with the show itself rather than the screenplay, but the guy who plays the villain comes across as a dollar store Hannibal Lector. It distracted me and left a hole where I wanted an awesome villain.
Also, the wizard and fantasy stuff is so misplaced here and translates to the screen as hokey as I feared. Plus, the more I think about the wizard’s actions throughout, the more contrived the whole plot feels.
It’s entirely too long.
Now to the ending. (Spoilers) The dilemma in the last act is so easy that I didn’t resonate with the conflict; like obviously giving up one kid to live with the wizard is better than murdering literally the entire island…so dumb. Yet, this portion of the screenplay was kind of riveting in the moment.
Reading the screenplay was at times an empty experience, which is to be expected because screenplays aren’t meant to be read. But I liked being able to move through the slow-paced story more quickly. On the other hand, watching the show was the complete experience and made some things click for me that felt confusing on the page.
King was restrained in content, structure, and effects because this was written for network television. Maybe Storm of the Century would have worked a lot better as a novel. I guess we’ll never know.
Critical Score: C+
Personal Score: C
From a hugely famous author, with such an exciting title, and the screenplay sold commercially, Storm of the Century warrants so much hype. But it doesn’t deliver on the suspense and epic drama I hoped for. The story is too plain and full of cheesy tropes. It just lacks…a lot. I felt nothing watching this—no dread, no coziness, no amusement. It’s just so bleh.
And don’t get me wrong; it has its moments. This story isn’t terrible. And a lot of people love this miniseries, so obviously there’s something there that I’m missing.
Really, my opinion just shows how good King’s prose is by virtue of how much his typical strengths are missed in this screenplay. The characters lack depth, the themes are shallow, the atmosphere is underwritten. King is no great screenwriter; he’s a natural novelist.
This is more of an issue with the show itself rather than the screenplay, but the guy who plays the villain comes across as a dollar store Hannibal Lector. It distracted me and left a hole where I wanted an awesome villain.
Also, the wizard and fantasy stuff is so misplaced here and translates to the screen as hokey as I feared. Plus, the more I think about the wizard’s actions throughout, the more contrived the whole plot feels.
It’s entirely too long.
Now to the ending. (Spoilers) The dilemma in the last act is so easy that I didn’t resonate with the conflict; like obviously giving up one kid to live with the wizard is better than murdering literally the entire island…so dumb. Yet, this portion of the screenplay was kind of riveting in the moment.
Reading the screenplay was at times an empty experience, which is to be expected because screenplays aren’t meant to be read. But I liked being able to move through the slow-paced story more quickly. On the other hand, watching the show was the complete experience and made some things click for me that felt confusing on the page.
King was restrained in content, structure, and effects because this was written for network television. Maybe Storm of the Century would have worked a lot better as a novel. I guess we’ll never know.