By KYLE PHANEUF

Contributing Reporter

As far as film adaptations go, Paulo Morelli’s 2008 film, “City of Men,” took the long road to arriving on the silver screen. 

The film is based on the television serial of the same name. The television series was based on the spectacular 2002 film “City of God,” which, of course, was based on the identically titled 1997 novel by Brazilian writer Paulo Lins. 

After going through many mediums, it was inevitable that the tone of the current adaptation’s tone would differ significantly from the orginal, but the two divergent titles themselves — City of God and City of Men — do a good job of explaining the 

differences between the films.

Though they both examine the lives of young people growing up in the wake of the gang-violence consuming Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, “God” is a fast paced crime drama where the combat is never far from the focus. Murder, drug abuse and rape are constantly threatening to burst into the lives of the protagonists and the gang leaders are, to an extent, pseudo-deified living legends (at least as long as they’re still alive).

“Men,” on the other hand, is more absorbed in the patriarchal melodrama surrounding two newly 18-year-olds, Ace and Laranjinha.

Ace is dealing with raising a child despite not feeling like much of an adult himself, while Laranjinha is searching for his real father.

 The overbearing influence the warring gangs have on their lives is still present, as with “God,” but it’s mostly kept in the background, looming over the film like a specter only to be shrugged off and accepted by the two leads before it explodes into the forefront, changing everything.

 Even the look and atmosphere of these two companion pieces differ. Where “God” was hyper-saturated and swiftly edited, 

“Men” feels more relaxed in its execution, taking the time to meditate on the slums of the city. Though it swaps its predecessor’s rich color palette for a more muted tone, the film still gets plenty of mileage out of the irony that such terrible things happen in one of the world’s most naturally beautiful regions.

 While “God” succeeded on sheer grandeur, arguably producing the more entertaining and consistent film, the changes in “Men” result in feeling more natural and mature, less provocative or even exploitative of a very real and terrible situation.

 Some pacing issues and a non-existent ending keeps “Men” from completely living up to its precursor’s impressive reputation, but the film is a fascinating and terrifying look at the lives of those affected by an ongoing war that rarely comes to light in the rest of the world.