The Snowman

The original material the film is based on, "The Snowman" by Jo Nesbo, is a gripping thriller brilliantly composed with complex characters. However, this film adaption lacks everything. Frankly, there is very little left of the original story. The scriptwriters not only tampered with the plot, but altered characters as well. It is an entirely different story that is badly constructed with gaping holes in the plot.

Without having read the book, I'd imagine it would be slightly better with decent performances from the actors. Shame that had such an awful script to work with.

I can't deny that I had high hopes for this film and it disappointed me on many levels, but I do think some of the previous reviews are exaggerating just how bad 'The Snowman' is. The film is messy, even puzzling at times, and very frustrating to watch. It lacks focus and struggles to find its feet early on. It also contains some baffling individual scenes that contribute nothing to the plot or film as a whole.

It improves as it goes along though and, contrary to what a lot of others have said, I thought the ending was relatively well done. The film is more of a mystery than a horror and it did keep me interested and guessing until the end... though I'm sure the stunning Scandinavian scenery did the film a lot of favours in terms of watchability.

'The Snowman' is disappointing, but it does have some pluses and is not as bad as some are making it out to be.

Bit slow at times but It can't be all action all the time. It entertained me, exactly what it was supposed to do.

Aside from apparently everybody in Norway speaking only English with an English dialect (good for old school filmmaking, but we're all smarter than that), it was a really enjoyable afternoon movie. Would love to have seen it on the big screen, it just had that feeling to it!! There were some shortcomings in the film, some of them were distracting, others permissible. I expected a little more, but overall recommend it on a cold, rainy day!

What annoys me the most is that this movie could have been so good... an engaging story by the best-selling nordic writer Jo Nesbø, a breathtaking cinematography, an exceptional cast (Michael Fassbender, Rebecca Ferguson, JK Simmons, Chloe Sevigny and even Val Kilmer).

And yet the adaptation is so unsatisfactory. There are cuts and jumps that break the fluidity of the narrative, the plot ended up so stereotyped that in 15 minutes I already knew who the murderer was, and then there were so many loose ends... And that ending is just empty, empty, empty. What a waste of potential. This book deserved a much more coherente adaptation.