The awesome books turned into bad movies rant thread

[Coremae]

Now that could be super-duper awesometastic. I'm looking forward to these movies so much.

Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson and Stephen Sinclair spent more than a year building the script for the first two movies, with as you know, Walsh, Boyens and Jackson completing the third. But my goodness to know that Madam Boyens, Lady Walsh and Sir Jackson are now working diligently to make the Hobbit even more epic---this is truly an awesome time to be alive.

[MIZA]

Books are always going to be better than a movie. Think about it. A book author has almost no limits to what he or she can write. It is not the same with movies. Their are limits in budget, time, and some things are just impossible to do in technology terms

Wow you seem calmer now!

And I completely agree it is impossible , not mention they have to appeal to not just fans of the books, but also people who have not read the book.

[Gollumpus]

Instances of where the creators of a film or TV version of a book are pretty much always at a disadvantage. There is only so much time and space which can be captured on a screen rather than between the covers of a book.

As to bad films from from great books:

1.) Catch-22. Brilliant book, not so much in the film. One of the main issues is the compression of characters, where in some cases three minor book characters are captured into on screen character.

2.) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Amazing book. Great TV series, terrible movie.

3.) The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Yes, it's not a "book", but none the less the film failed to properly capture the story of this comic series.

4.) Dune. Pretty much a very long mini-series, say about five years long, would be needed to properly tell this story.

5.) Master and Commander series. I believe they were compressing events from the two different books into this one film.

6.) Starship Trooper. It has pretty much no resemblance to the book, which is not that bad.

7.) Hellblazer. Once again, not a "book" but the film made from the comic series was trash.

On the other hand, Blade Runner was so much better than "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".

regards,
G.

[Gollumpus]

Basically Michael Crichton's entire library:
Sphere is my favorite book ever. Movie was wretched.
Congo is so good. Movie made me want to eat babies.
Timeline was also fantastic. Movie had Paul Walker. Enough said.
The Lost World rivaled Jurassic Park in goodness. Movie was clearly written by a 3 year old on crack.
Only the original Jurassic Park movie was somewhat redeemable.

I didn't mind "13th Warrior" based on the book. "Eaters of the Dead". There were a number of things about it, such as we got to see how Ahmed slowly taught himself how to speak the like his companions.

On the down side, the making of a scimitar-like blade was a bit weird.

regards,
G.

[Morbo]

I never saw the 13th warrior, and i couldn't bring myself to finish eaters of the dead. it was so boring (at least to me)

[magictrick]

Reading this thread makes me realize how many poor adaptions of books there really are. I haven't read all the books listed but having seen most of these movies, a lot of them were of underwhelming quality.

Another book series I'll add to the list is The Sword of Truth. This was turned into a TV series (Legend of the Seeker), not a movie, but same thing applies. They took a book series that was meant for adults and turned into a family oriented TV series. It did not work well.

[Gollumpus]

I never saw the 13th warrior, and i couldn't bring myself to finish eaters of the dead. it was so boring (at least to me)

I wasn't so bad. It was a fairly fast paced flick, and I found the motivations and actions of the characters to be fairly rational. Some things, like certain armour pieces looked to be a bit out of place, but on the whole it wasn't bad. I also found the casting to be pretty good.

If nothing else, it's another film made here in BC.

regards,
G.

PS - the film is also available on-line in various areas. maybe give it a quick look-see and then go rent it or something?

[Starsaber]

I love the Stephanie Plumb books by Janet Evanovich, I have all of them.

The Movie.....a HUGE turd!

I wouldn't necessarily go that far. It had issues, mostly poor casting in some of the major roles, but it actually followed the book pretty closely.

Starship Troopers immediately jumped to mind when I saw this thread.

[Easter Lily]

I do not mind people talking about non Scifi/Fantasy book series ether, for example I have heard people say that Anne of Green Gables was very different then the books and not very good.

I'm assuming you are referring to the series starring Megan Follows. The first mini-series was very good and captured the spirit of the novel remarkably well. The sequel which followed was decent although the director took a few liberties. Subsequent sequels, however, have been deeply disappointing. The fourth is really nothing more than badly conceived and executed fanfiction.

Instances of where the creators of a film or TV version of a book are pretty much always at a disadvantage. There is only so much time and space which can be captured on a screen rather than between the covers of a book.

As to bad films from from great books:

1.) Catch-22. Brilliant book, not so much in the film. One of the main issues is the compression of characters, where in some cases three minor book characters are captured into on screen character.

2.) The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Amazing book. Great TV series, terrible movie.

3.) The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Yes, it's not a "book", but none the less the film failed to properly capture the story of this comic series.

4.) Dune. Pretty much a very long mini-series, say about five years long, would be needed to properly tell this story.

5.) Master and Commander series. I believe they were compressing events from the two different books into this one film.

6.) Starship Trooper. It has pretty much no resemblance to the book, which is not that bad.

7.) Hellblazer. Once again, not a "book" but the film made from the comic series was trash.

On the other hand, Blade Runner was so much better than "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".

regards,
G.

I thought the Hitchhiker film was rather dull. Read the books in high school and regularly convulsed into side splitting laughter. The film, on the other hand, felt awkward and staid. Can't believe that Douglas Adams had anything to do with it. The radio plays are still king.

I have great admiration for what Jackson did with LoTR on the whole but I still don't like what he did with Faramir to large extent and Aragon to a lesser extent.