Well, all my readers know that aside from how good I am at comparison articles, I really love reading and that means, I have watched tons of movies that were adapted actual books, I know it is not new to this site but I should let the readers know. I take comparison from comics to reel or books to reel seriously and I mean seriously, like this new movie that was released, it is actually adapted from one of the greatest books that I have read of all time.

I’m talking about Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, It’s a series and there are other books that will justify the sequel. This 2023, movie world has decided to make it a live action movie rather than sitting in the bookshelf of those who read it since it became famous in 2011. Directed by Roger Kumble, same director for the After series, he is actually making the famous romance books true to life.

But as a reader what do I really think about the adaptation? Well, first, let me tell you a recap of the story. Beautiful Disaster is a story about a girl, Abby, who runaway from home to live a normal life. However, the normal life she wanted was cut short after she met Travis Maddox, a hot, underground match fighter whom she lost a bet with. The bet was if Travis loses, he will stop having sex for a month but if he wins, Abby will move in with him in his apartment for a month. Can you guess who won the bet? Obviously, it was Trav and he had 30 days to spend with Abby. In the long run, Abby’s past is slowly catching up with her. She is coined as the Lucky 13, because she was famous for becoming the youngest poker player in Vegas and her dad owes some big guns a large some of money; she has to win it back to pay for his dad’s debts.

Verdict

If you have read the whole series just like me, you’ll know that what I’m about to say is really serious, the books were way more detailed than movies, this is normal but what is not normal is when you change the mood of the whole story. Sad to say, this is not an article where I will praise the director for making the live action be possible because it was not as what I pictured it to be.

The main character, Travis “Mad Dog” Maddox was played by Dylan Sprouse, which I can say, kudos to him, he literally worked hard to achieve those muscles but Dylan is just not the right man for the job. Although, compare to his twin brother Cole, he is way better to play Trav if you have both of them as an option, however, the physique, and appearance as described in the book, it wasn’t actually leading me to Dylan. I’d rather choose Colton Hayes to play the job coz he has all Travis’ fiction features. But the acting was great, didn’t know Dylan could still do some tricks in acting considering that we haven’t seen him act for so long.

I love Abby, who was played by Virginia Gardner. For those who don’t recognize her, she is playing as Hunter in the movie Fall in 2022. Yes, she is that girl who was eaten by vultures. She’s perfect for the role, couldn’t ask for any other Abby. However, her acting must have been affected by the whole theme of the movie, because I find her a little awkward.

Well, to push that further, what I’m trying to point out is that the movie turned the romance fiction book into a rom-com type of movie, it felt so comedic and I don’t think as a reader of the famous series, I would imagine the book to be as comic. There’s so much things that could’ve done, along with that is the whole point of Beautiful Disaster is that the love they have for each other is consuming and they cannot handle it on their own. There are also so many key scenes in the book that weren’t actually highlighted that much in the movie. Maybe because the movie was forced to be concise and brief and they just cannot fit a whole book in a more than an hour kind of movie, like any other movies.

This is not a downfall for the movie coz if you haven’t read the book and not as fan as I was, then you won’t see any mistake, and you’ll think that the book is actually like that which is good. However, since we were talking about comparing it to the book, then it really didn’t pass my vibe. Just even in the trailer it was really not that catchy. Maybe because I just don’t like how it became a chic flick all of a sudden when in reality, there’s so much deeper, spicier and darker points in the book that deserved to be adapted correctly.

I hope a redemption will happen soon because there’s a hanging question in the end, or might be with another book or story but I really hope they can do adaptations like this at least 97% accurate, not only with the facts but also in each of the characters.

All in all I will give this a 77% wonderroanne rating. It wasn’t perfect, it was okay but not okay for me to be able to imagine Travis is not actually looking like a Mad Dog.

PS. I love Shepley and Mare.

Note: Search in YouTube some of the book trailers fans made before, they’re more than perfect than the actual movie. It just hits different, that’s all.