Movies based on books rant

    • Movies based on books rant

      What's happening forum?

      Warming: Rant and potential spoilers to follow

      I'm pissed!
      I just finished watching Lord of the Flies, which if you do not know, is based on the book of the same name.
      I'm just....irritated.
      Firstly, the kids in the novel are British, where in the film they are American.
      Not a huge problem...until I see that Jack is blond! In the novel, he has red hair. What the crap is that about? And he and Ralph are friends in the beginning? That's bullshit. Not to mention, the pig head (or the Lord of Flies) does not even speak. Simon just stares at it and goes into some cave to find the dead pilot. Oh wait, hang on, didn't the pilot die in the beginning of the novel? And Simon found some guy stuck in his parachute on the mountain top, not in a cave!
      *shrugs off irritation*
      I'm okay, just had to get that off my chest.

      But seriously, I am normally one to find some good in every movie (with an exception of the American version of Death At A Funeral), especially with movies based on books. If I did not read Lord Of The Flies, I probably would have thought this was the best movie ever. But I did, and I found it disappointing. It is one thing to make a visual adoption of a novel, it is another thing to change it. Look at The Green Mile, there is almost no difference between the novel and the movie, and look how that turned out. The Green Mile was brilliant!
      Now there are exceptions, such as The Bourne Identity. This was one of the few cases that the movie was actually better than the book (and I read the book, it's not that great). But I got so irritated because the movie has almost nothing to do with the actual book. They just took the core story and added their own scenes.

      I'm just so glad that Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows is coming out in the form of two movies, because at least they will be able to include the best parts of the novel.

      Okay, rant over.

      Tell me what you think of movies based on books or videogames as a whole. If you read the books first, do you bother watching the movie at all?

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      For the most part I really cannot stand it.
      Time Travellers Wife is an amazing book, it actually made me cry and then I watched the film and turned it off half way through. They deleted some of the most important parts and created new events which didn't even happen in the book. I think a lot of the time movies can completely ruin books for me and it sucks. I don't see why people have to keep making adaptions, it's as if people can't think of any original ideas anymore so have to rape great examples of literature.
      The last Harry Potter film disappointed me greatly so I hope they do not ruin this last film.
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    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      to be honest, almost all movies based on books are crap especially when you've read the book. I can go on a four day rant about how disapponted I am about the 4th/5th harry potter movies, but yeah I have very low expectations for movies that I've already read the books too.

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      I dunno some can do it really well like solaris by stanilaw lem is a fav book of mine. I loved the 1962 Russian version movie adaptation cause it was so dead on however I love the 2002 version remake cause it strays so far from the book that I see it as a seperate story with mild ties to the book. It wasn't a fluke it did that either, it was intentional so I feel it can be justified to that small extent.

      My favorite book to movie adaptations though were the Bourne series. I wish they'd continue to the story cause there are more than just 3 books =/

      The post was edited 1 time, last by leviathan ().

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      Spaceman Spiff wrote:

      What's really bad are video games based on movies (basically just to advertise for the movie) and movies based on video games. Yuck.


      Definitely
      Eg: Harry Potter Games.
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      The post was edited 2 times, last by xyz123456: fixed typo in quote :D ().

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      DamnImGood wrote:

      However now it's become standard operating procedure to release a video game in conjunction with a film. It's nothing more than a marketing ploy to make more money. I fell for it once. I bought the Spider-Man game for PS2 when the first film came out. After completing a few levels I sold it. It was crap.


      Yeah during my time with Best Buy I quickly noticed that the so called "gaming-saavy" customers had no interest in those at all...the younger kids would buy the games just to play their favorite characters from the movie, but the older gamers all dismissed them as garbage with no actual gameplay. It tells you something when you have several huge stacks of merchandise that nobody wanted. :D

      The post was edited 1 time, last by xyz123456 ().

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      One of the best film adaptations in my opinion was of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. They made a very wise decision by allowing the words to speak from the book via the unnamed narrator. I very much look forward to more adaptions of his books.

      On the opposite end of this, an adaptation that I was horribly displeased with was Slaughterhouse-Five. They should have done what the producers for Fight Club did, when they placed a heavy emphasis on narration. Kurt Vonnegut's thoughts retelling the story of Billy Pilgrim in Dresden give the book it's charm and humor, which the movie lacked. Oh well..
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    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      DamnImGood wrote:

      The Bourne trilogy is my favourite post-2000 trilogy; I really hope they leave it at three films because I feel they concluded the story.


      have you picked up the books past the 3? They had plans to make the 4th but the director had something come up or w/e and damon won't do it without him. The story gets even better I find further in.

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      The only movie I liked better than the book was A Little Princess, beacause I love how in the movie her father is alive.<3

      The worst movie based on a book, I think is.. Needful Things.
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    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      Enter the Matrix was actually an excellent game for a game of the film, it was good because you did things that you didn't get to see in the films.

      I never knew that the last Harry Potter film was going to be made into two films :o I've read most of the books and they were really good, whereas the films went downhill after the 3rd one.
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    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      DamnImGood wrote:

      I haven't read any of them. Originally I didn't know it was based off a book series. I knew there was a TV show/series, made in the late 80s, which I thought it was based off. Later on I learned it was based off "a book". I didn't realize how many there were.

      With all that said, I like the story that was presented with the films, and prefer if they didn't modify it. If they did I'd feel like they're just recycling the same concept. I mean what else could they do? The whole idea (from what I gathered from the films) was that Treadstone was after him. But Treadstone was shut down, as well as all the people in the CIA who were responsible of going after him were prosecuted (or "saved face" like Pamela Landy). I don't know. I just feel like they concluded it, and to bring it "back to life" would be like bringing the Terminator franchise back to life - there's no need to. But I guess if the books were written as a series of four, then they have something in store. It just feels like a solid conclusion to me.

      I did hear rumours about it a while ago. Something about Bourne going to South America.


      theres actually 8 and all are fairly solid so trust me when I say you wouldn't be worried about them if you read them.


      plot summary off wiki for #4
      With the climactic events of The Bourne Ultimatum behind him, Jason Bourne is able to once again become David Webb, now professor of linguistics at Georgetown University. However, this serenity does not last for long. When a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head the Bourne Persona reawakens in him yet again. And his first objective is to get to his long time friend and handler at the CIA, Alex Conklin. However, unbeknown to Bourne, a Hungarian by the name of Stepan Spalko has now drawn Jason into a web—one which he cannot escape as easily as his professional facade.


      read the books man, they are really solid.

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      Generally I agree with this.

      The one book/film that really stood out as being amazing to me was Atonement. I love that book so wasn't expecting to enjoy the film but it was actually done PERFECTLY.

      The worst one for me was Night Watch. I like the Night Watch book series; the film...was ridiculously laughable. So bad hahaha, turned it off after 10 minutes.

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      Muppy wrote:

      For the most part I really cannot stand it.
      Time Travellers Wife is an amazing book, it actually made me cry and then I watched the film and turned it off half way through. They deleted some of the most important parts and created new events which didn't even happen in the book. I think a lot of the time movies can completely ruin books for me and it sucks. I don't see why people have to keep making adaptions, it's as if people can't think of any original ideas anymore so have to rape great examples of literature.
      The last Harry Potter film disappointed me greatly so I hope they do not ruin this last film.


      you cant really ruin a book that bad,the last harry potter was just one long disappointing camping trip

    • Re: Movies based on books rant

      I suddenly feel the need to step in here,
      As a poster above said, a book is a book, a movie is a movie.
      To paraphrase Raymond Chandler (a crime novelist who had most of his books turned into movies by hollywood) when asked if he felt hollywood was ruining his work.... he replied, the books are the same books on my shelf, they don't change
      When people say that it ruined a book it seems a bit of an impossibility.

      As for good adaptations:

      Atonement - as a poster suggested, i actually had to do an assignment on the adaptation (not adoption or adaption as so many people fell the need to say) and aside form being faithful to the novel, the replaced prose techniques with cinematic one in order to make up for it.

      The Prestige - better than the novel i thought as the novel was far too complex to really understand

      Duel - based on the short story

      Casablanca - based on the play "everybody comes to Rick's"

      The Shawshank Redeption - no explanation needed

      Hellboy

      Jackie Brown

      Sherlock Holmes

      The Dark Knight

      Memento

      2001: A space oddesey

      The maltese Falcon

      V for Vendetta

      There Will Be Blood

      One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest

      Amadeus

      Psycho

      The Silence of the Lambs

      Die hard

      Stand By Me


      I mean the list goes on and on and on......
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