I found out about the movie before the book.

Well, I can already call myself a LizQuen (that’s Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, natch!) fan since watching them faithfully in Forevermore, so no surprise that I knew about their movie.  But I decided to be old-school and read the book the movie was based on.

Found the book at National Book Store, with a new cover featuring LizQuen, to promote the movie.  OMG—makapal siya at maliit ang size ng letters.  I was hoping manipis lang para tapos agad, I didn’t expect too much from it.  However, when I started reading, aba, OK naman pala.  Sure, the storyline kind of follows the same formula (guy and girl hate are complete opposites, hate each other, and end up in love); promise, I’ve only read around three Pop Fiction books and they all kind of go this way.  Strangely enough, Sophia Taylor and Drake Swift start off being your typical nerdy girl and popular guy, but later they develop dimensions to them that make them somehow more interesting.  ‘Yun nga lang, feeling ko hindi nabuo nang maayos.  The surprises and mysteries incorporated in the story (Sophia’s parents, Drake’s dad) came in trickles, tapos in the end medyo feeling mo may hindi pa nadi-discover na iba pang secrets.  Actually, mas interesting (but complete!) ‘yung character ni Andre, best friend ni Drake.  Palagay ko, ang intention ng writer is really to put together all these complex twists to keep the story engaging.

So, done with the book, on to the movie.  Buti na lang super mabenta ang loveteam na ‘to at palabas pa din sa sinehan nung time na natapos ko ang libro.  Grabe! Nakakakilig talaga sila! So much that it didn’t matter anymore to me na andaming details na hindi naipasok sa movie, kaya naging lalo pang mediocre ang storyline.  Pero convincing sila as a loveteam, tapos magaling pa silang umarte.  Hindi lang ‘yun—nakakaiyak kaya! Lalo na dun sa story angle ni Sophia (Liza) and her dad, which somehow made up for the lost story about her brother, the Andre/Marcus angle, and the role of Skye.  I guess kailangan gawin para hindi confusing ang story masyado.

That said, sure ako na naging LizQuen fan pa ako lalo.  Now, since walang pang ganap sa loveteam na ‘to, looking forward muna ako sa On The Wings of Love ng JaDine.  Six days na lang!

OK, fine—it’s not really a chick flick.  Pero mga 85% ng nanonood ay chicks.  That’s ‘cause it’s based on the book by John Green, author of the YA novel and popular-with-the-chicks flick, The Fault In Our Stars.  In fact, andun din sa Paper Towns si Gus (Ansel Elgort) in a cameo role. 

To be honest, I liked this film better than The Fault In Our Stars.  In TFIOS, there was just so many puns coming from angst coming from the characters’ experiences; death is a difficult subject to tackle, and that fact, of course, came out, no matter how witty or sarcastic Gus’ and Hazel’s lines were.  In Paper Towns, the theme was really about friendship and coming of age, so it wasn’t as ‘heavy’.  Some might say may kababawan ang pelikulang ito—after all, it just shows a teenage boy Quentin (Nat Wolff, TFIOS’ Isaac) with a crush on popular girl Margo (model Cara Delevingne) who dragged him along to do some pranks, whom he runs after (with his friends) when she turns up missing.  But in the end, ang kwento naman was really about how this young person idealized something, in this case, a girl, which turns out not so extraordinary.  What he realized is that his friends, no matter how quirky or crazy, would stay with him all throughout and knock sense into him when he needs it.  At yun ang natutunan ni Q, yung bida:  the real ‘miracle’, the idea that was extraordinary, was his friendship with his two BFFs.  That he should treasure it, because they were all set to go off to college, which meant parang end na rin ng samahan nila as they knew it.

Ganoon naman, di ba?  Minsan lang, there are ideas or people that you set so high up on a pedestal, na pinakaiingatan mo, na laging gusto mong ma-impress.  Then, later you discover na OMG, ang corny pala niya, o he’s not as smart as I thought, o grabe pala ‘to mag-tantrums.  Tapos nagiging totoo na siya sa paningin mo, not anymore as perfect as you originally thought.  So, doon natatapos ang ‘pagsamba’ mo, nagigising ka na sa katotohanan.  Don’t blame it on the person or idea—because you did all the ‘idolizing’.  But along the way, you usually end up neglecting people or parts of your life that had been there for you constantly.  Yes, we can say na ang mga totoong kaibigan ay ‘yung tipong nandiyan pa din kahit anong mangyari, pero mas OK if we don’t take them for granted.  Because when you look back at your own story, you might wish you had given them more parts.

Ayan, #hugot kung #hugot.  ‘Lamoyan.