It's difficult to come to terms with this movie if you're a huge fan of the TV series and a huge fan of David Lynch.
There are a lot of problems with this movie. I believe that ultimately the Twin Peaks formula just didn't translate to the big screen.
The first half hour is a completely different movie. And it's fantastic: definitely the best part of the movie. Then it snaps into Twin Peaks mode. But we forget what Twin Peaks was all about, and so the intentionally corny dialog and melodrama just seem like corny dialog and melodrama instead of the campy irony that the TV Series had. In the TV Show, the occasional shots of the soap opera "Invitation to Love" really drove the point home.
The production value of a movie instead of a grainy TV show is working against this movie, as well.
And then there is just no light-hearted fun, here. All the charm of Twin Peaks is subsumed by focusing on its dark underbelly. Swearing, violence, incest, drug abuse. If you read the original script for the movie, there was more of the original wacky and charming characters, but it never made it to the final version.
Finally, so much time has to be spent setting up everything so that it aligns with the show: that's the problem with prequels.
Yet with all these problems, this movie can't be dismissed. It has a lot of great, weird moments. The first half-hour, the red-room stuff, the cream corn, the grandmother and the magician, etc. It's a chore to sit through a lot of the stuff that depicts Laura Palmer's descent, but it's worth it to get to the wonderful bits of weirdness. But, alas, it never resurrects the indescribable magic of the TV Series.
There are a lot of problems with this movie. I believe that ultimately the Twin Peaks formula just didn't translate to the big screen.
The first half hour is a completely different movie. And it's fantastic: definitely the best part of the movie. Then it snaps into Twin Peaks mode. But we forget what Twin Peaks was all about, and so the intentionally corny dialog and melodrama just seem like corny dialog and melodrama instead of the campy irony that the TV Series had. In the TV Show, the occasional shots of the soap opera "Invitation to Love" really drove the point home.
The production value of a movie instead of a grainy TV show is working against this movie, as well.
And then there is just no light-hearted fun, here. All the charm of Twin Peaks is subsumed by focusing on its dark underbelly. Swearing, violence, incest, drug abuse. If you read the original script for the movie, there was more of the original wacky and charming characters, but it never made it to the final version.
Finally, so much time has to be spent setting up everything so that it aligns with the show: that's the problem with prequels.
Yet with all these problems, this movie can't be dismissed. It has a lot of great, weird moments. The first half-hour, the red-room stuff, the cream corn, the grandmother and the magician, etc. It's a chore to sit through a lot of the stuff that depicts Laura Palmer's descent, but it's worth it to get to the wonderful bits of weirdness. But, alas, it never resurrects the indescribable magic of the TV Series.