The first critics of the "12 Monkeys" SyFy adaptation have finally arrived, and apparently it has received some mixed reviews from different spheres, as it's apparently fairly different from its original source material, the 1995 Terry Gilliam film starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt in a dystopian mind-twister.
Fans of the original film have been anxiously awaiting the release of "12 Monkeys" SyFy series, ever since it was first announced back in July 2013, as other series adaptations of 90s films thrive in the television format, following the success of the FX series "Fargo," based on the Coen brothers film of the same name, as well as that of the widely popular "Hannibal" from the Thomas Harris novels and their Anthony Hopkins adaptations.
According to The New York Post, the "12 Monkeys" SyFy adaptation deserves 4 stars out of 5, saying that the main characters do fairly differ from their movie counterparts; for example, Bruce Willis' original character, Aaron Stanford, is "less brawny and more broody, more of an everyman," and that his past is less haunting to him than that of his movie predecessor.
Entertainment Weekly, on the other hand, states that the "12 Monkeys" SyFy series "changes the rules of the movie," if only for one simple reason: in the Terry Gilliam classic sci-fi, the events of the story are predestined to remain just as they are, as even time-traveling will not keep Cole from fulfilling his destiny as a major point towards the development of a virus that will almost destroy humanity.
In the series, however, things aren't meant to be that way, and working things around can change the future, and the dystopian future where humanity is almost nonexistent can be stalled.
Another thing that's different in the "12 Monkeys" SyFy adaptation is the fact that the famous Brad Pitt character, mental patient Jeffrey Goines, is now a woman, mental patient Jennifer Goines (who is played by Emily Hampshire); in any case, this Friday marks the official release of the series' first episode, as the season has a "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes of 67 percent.