Going Postal

It's not really a period drama so much as a costume drama- It's got a magical, Dickensian feel with the Victorian inspired costumes and settings. The world is located on the back of four elephants who are on a giant turtle…I haven't read any of the series but from what I've read about it and from watching this adaptation, it's a comical cross between Dickens and fantasy.

This series definitely made me interested in Terry Pratchett's works! Don't know if I'll have time to read them any time soon but one day it would be fun! I think if you like fantasy series like Harry Potter and such as well as costume dramas you should like this show.

I've only come to the Discworld fairly recently and 'Going Postal' was the first book I read. I've found it one of the most enjoyable books in the series, and Moist Von Lipwig is by far and away my favourite character. So I had a vested interest in this, Sky's third adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel.

After the first episode aired, I was in raptures. It was well filmed, the script was good, it had remained fairly faithful to the plot and it appeared to be well cast (although all the way through I expected Richard Coyle to jump into the TARDIS as there's something very Doctor Who-ish about his performance. And I thought Adora Belle Dearheart wasn't written very well at all). The second episode, however, was very disappointing. It seemed that the writers had read half of 'Going Postal' and then left their copy on the bus so had to resort to making the end of the story up. I cannot understand why they would change it so drastically. There's artistic license, and then there's sheer stupidity.

I guess we cannot expect any better from the writers. For a screenplay to be 100% true to the book, Pratchett would have to write it himself and now that's never going to happen. I would have liked to have seen them have a crack at 'Making Money' but their ending of 'Going Postal' hardly segues smoothly into the following book.

I prefer 'Hogfather', but 'Going Postal' is still very entertaining. You just have to try to forget ever having read the book.

First off, This is the third film based on Terry Pratchett Discworld and if you have seen the previous films you know they lacked in quite many areas.

As it happens to be, the moment I started reading Going Postal(the book) I thought for myself "This would make a really great movie!".

Why? you ask and I answer Good story that is easy to follow without any previous knowledge of Discworld. Small amount of magic and special effects that would require a 100 Million budget to make decent. This is where the previous movie Color of Magic went wrong.

So as it came to my knowledge Going Postal was the next movie to be made I felt quite happy, perhaps this would be the time when they got it all right?

Now that I've seen the result I must say that it was in fact, quite awesome! This is far much better than the mediocre Color of Magic adaptation, and it even goes ahead and surpasses the first movie Hoghfather.

There are a few things to hate about Going Postal though, and I believe these are the reasons some people absolutely hate this movie. I believe what all this is about is the use of Cinematic Freedom. First, Angua has been totally removed use some cinematic freedom and replaced with a "posh blond pale looking I'm not afraid to transform to a werewolf anywhere" girl, which many fans probably hate, I myself hate it as well. And even then they had to go ahead and make a wolf animation of her, the type of crappy animations I was hoping wouldn't be required in Going Postal!

Second thing to hate about the movie is the Banshee, seriously, it's the most silly piece of outfit ever seen! If you cant make a good banshee with wings, then use some of that cinematic freedom and just make him normal man dressed in black with some black smoke around him! As it turns out the banshee is the single most disturbing thing about this movie since everything else adds to an atmosphere that the Discworld is actually real. The moment this guy enters flailing his paper wings and screaming the whole atmosphere takes a big dip.

So now you ask, if the movie is so bad why did you rate it so high? Its quite simple really, because of the two things I just discussed. Because even if those 2 details could have been done A LOT better, there is the whole rest of the movie, and this is a movie that has great acting, great story, great atmosphere, great characters and not to forget Great Entertainment Value!

Going Postal is by far the best Discworld movie as of yet and if you are only able to see past the few bad drops in the bucket filled with greatness, Im sure you will come to the same conclusion as me.

I did like Hogfather and Colour of Magic too, but what made me like Going Postal best of all was that it was more solid in especially the story, pacing and acting departments. Not that the other two were bad in those categories, but they did have characters that weren't explored as well as they could have been or there were moments of sluggish pacing or forced dialogue.

Going Postal could have easily had those problems but it didn't really. Of all the Sky/Pratchett adaptations it is the best paced overall, while the story even with the changes is compelling and the writing is playful and witty on the whole.

The costumes are colourful and beautiful, and the sets and scenery are also stunning and the effects in general are above average though I wasn't crazy about the Banshee. The photography does very well to capture these lovely visuals, while the music is very good and the direction credible enough.

The cast I feel is the best yet. Charles Dance, Richard Coyle and Steve Pemberton turn in great performances, and Claire Foy is also appealing and David Suchet is an interesting Gilt.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I liked all three Sky/Pratchett adaptations this one was the best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Perhaps I lack sophistication but I liked it.

It's been so long since I read the book that the details were fuzzy to me but as with the other two adaptations I can live with the changes. To do faithful film versions would require making mini-series of them.

I didn't expect a high budget production and expected to see changes, partly to make sense in the allotted time and partly to appeal to a broader audience.

As for the uninitiated, I'd think that those who liked it will like the book better and those who don't probably wouldn't like the book either.

Even with all the flaws in the movies I hope to see other of T. Pratchett's books adapted to film. I'm rooting for "Night Watch" as the next one.