Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

I was once addicted to the books that this film was based on. Due to me being bored, I decided to take down off of my bookshelves the entire saga of the Baudelaire children and read each book nonstop until the end of all 171 chapters. Wanting more, I decided to rewatch the film. At first, I was puzzled with what I saw. I know that novels will be different when they are presented on film, but I was puzzled at the drastic change of the content. The original series was a modern masterpiece of dark comedy and psychological humor while the film was mainly slapstick with some dark humor and impressive set pieces.After coming to terms with that, I rewatched the film to base it on it's own terms. What I got was an okay film that proves how versatile Jim Carry can be in terms of playing different characters. That is what might be the greatest problem with this film: it is built too much on being artistic and show casing Carry's talent as an actor. The rest of the cast is... okay. Nothing that really stood out to me and for a film that has Timothy Spall, Jude Law, and Meryl Streep, this is a shock due to how bland they acted. I know in the books their characters only served as disposable characters just to move the story along, but here they just seem to be their for no reason. You could literally remove those characters and the film would still be the same. I find this disappointing because all three actors play characters that are amusing, interesting, and worth watching. But with them removing almost all likability that they had in the text, they are just left hallow characters that serve no purpose. Honestly, this broke my heart a bit because I wish that they would have gave these characters life.But, seeing as how this film is built on the triple performance of Jim Carry, I might as well talk about that for a bit. He is good in this version of Olaf, and that is to say the film adaption. He portrays this dark character as a comedic joke, making each reincarnation more humorous and insane than the previous. Watching him does make one smile due to the silly and outrageous presentation. His performance is not as good nor as memorable as others, but the look he givers Olaf is.For the children, they are okay. Emily Browning portrays a more mature version of Violet which, for me, I liked. In the books that the film is adapted from, Violet comes off as weak and a little whinny. Here she is more mature, independent, and clear thinking. Liam Aiken does okay as Klaus, giving us a more whinny version and one that is not as good as you can hope. Personally, I wish that they picked a different actor other than Liam Aiken. But, that is just me. Seeing as how Sunny is just a baby in the film, it would be unfair for me to critique that performance.The set design and look of this film is wonderful. That is the one thing they did get right: the complete gothic feel of the story. Reading the novels, there is just a wave of Tim Burton-esque influence with the tone and look of the settings. If I could applaud this film for anything, it would be the art direction.In a nutshell, I did not care for this film at all. Yeah, it is a nice little family film that is good for passing the time, but if you are looking for a good adaption, you will be screwed to find that this is no such case. But, you know, it is a pity: this film could have been great.