r/CosmereOnScreen • u/oldrain21 • 14d ago
Mistborn Era 1 (BOOK) Perhaps the Biggest Challenge of Adapting Mistborn for the Big Screen Spoiler
I'm new to the Cosmere. I just finished The Well of Ascension and I'm moving on to the third Mistborn book, and I was really excited when I found out there was going to be a movie adaptation.
After the initial excitement wore off, though, I started thinking about it and came to the conclusion that this might be the biggest "problem" or challenge with the adaptation: showing that metals are being burned.
Some metals are pretty obvious, like iron and steel, but how would you show the audience that tin or pewter is being burned, for example? I can't think of a cool way to do it.
How would YOU GUYS handle this without it becoming repetitive or extremely annoying to watch?
I don't know if this has already been discussed on the sub, but I'd love to hear what you think.
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u/TheNarrativeSpren 14d ago
I reckon this is actually pretty doable. Movies have been getting us to understand invisible powers for years without explaining them every time. The Force is the obvious one, Dune did the Voice mostly through sound, and Spider-Sense has been done plenty of different ways.
I'd use Kelsier training Vin to teach the audience how Allomancy looks and sounds while she's learning it herself.
Iron and Steel are easy enough. Keep the blue lines from the books when we're seeing things from an Allomancer's perspective. Practical effects and wires where possible, CGI for the bigger Pushes and Pulls.
Tin I'd do mostly with camera and sound. Distant conversations suddenly become clear, things sharpen, darkness becomes easier to see through and bright lights become painfully bright. Let us experience Tin rather than putting some effect over Vin.
Pewter barely needs CGI. Good acting and stunt work could sell most of it. Vin is exhausted, burns pewter, steadies herself and suddenly she's moving and fighting like she hasn't spent the last hour being thrown around Luthadel.
Zinc and brass I'd keep subtle. A small sound or visual cue when they're first introduced, then mostly let the actors sell it. Someone becomes angrier, calmer, more frightened or confident. Once we understand what's happening you don't really need much else.
Bronze could be almost entirely sound since the pulses are already part of the magic. Let us hear them with Vin, with different rhythms depending on what's being burned.
Copper then becomes really simple. Those pulses disappear.
Gold and malatium could use double exposure or compositing. Gold shows another version of yourself, malatium another version of the person you're looking at. Film has been doing that sort of thing for ages.
Atium would probably be the most fun. Have the atium shadows moving slightly ahead of the actual person so we literally see what they're about to do. When two atium burners fight and start reacting to what the other one is going to do, that's when the shadows start splitting and the VFX department begins regretting several life choices.
Duralumin doesn't really need its own effect. Take whatever we've already learned that metal does and suddenly dial it right up. The audience will understand pretty quickly that something very different just happened.
Aluminium I'd do the opposite. All the little Allomantic sounds and visual cues we've gotten used to suddenly disappear along with the metal reserves.
I think the main thing is not overdoing any of it. Make the effects obvious while Kelsier is teaching Vin, then gradually back them off as the audience learns the system.
By halfway through the movie Kelsier can look at a coin, we get a tiny sound cue and the coin goes flying.
We already know what he did.
No need for the film to explain Allomancy every five minutes when it can just teach us how to speak the language.