Why are movies based on books almost always terrible?
89 replies, posted
I've been wondering this for a while. Why are they almost always so bad? Or even movies based off shows or comics. I can understand leaving out some unimportant details, but they always seem to skip the important stuff then add their own bullshit scene that never happened.
Could anyone explain why? I understand it's not an easy thing to do but honestly...
Because the visual representation doesn't match what you had imagined of the world while reading the book. That and because they can't do 8 hours movies they have to cut a lot of stuff.
Lol Guess you haven't seen many movies then.
Basicly what Xeon said.
I actually liked The Road because it stuck with the book pretty good.
Because book =/= script.
The ONLY movie I have ever seen that seemed like it took the book as the script was The Langoliers.
[QUOTE=Xeon06;23294423]Because the visual representation doesn't match what you had imagined of the world while reading the book. That and because they can't do 8 hours movies they have to cut a lot of stuff.[/QUOTE]
True. But when they get facts wrong it's annoying. Or when they make their own scenes and take out the good actual scenes. I'm fine with them cutting out scenes for time, but adding there own is just weird.
Did anyone see the Last Airbender? Obviously isn't a book, but they killed that series.
I'd have to say that almost all movies are based on a book, you just probably haven't realised it.
[QUOTE=7DeadlySyns;23294527]True. But when they get facts wrong it's annoying. Or when they make their own scenes and take out the good actual scenes. I'm fine with them cutting out scenes for time, but adding there own is just weird.
Did anyone see the Last Airbender? Obviously isn't a book, but they killed that series.[/QUOTE]
"What a twist!"
The Shawshank Redemption? Book.
Fight Club? Book.
Silence of the Lambs? Book.
American Psycho? Blade Runner? Children of Men? Minority Report? Artificial Intelligence? The Godfather? All based on books. The list just keeps going.
^ This.
There are so many excellent fils based off books. When you're watching them, you probably didn't even know it was a book.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;23294635]The Shawshank Redemption? Book.
Fight Club? Book.
Silence of the Lambs? Book.
American Psycho? Blade Runner? Children of Men? Minority Report? Artificial Intelligence? The Godfather? All based on books. The list just keeps going.[/QUOTE]
Thank you for pointing this out, because this is exactly what I was thinking.
Forrest Gump :colbert:
None of y'all mentioned Lord Of The Rings yet
Jurassic Park
[QUOTE=pointyface;23296571]None of y'all mentioned Lord Of The Rings yet[/QUOTE]
Eh, the first one was great. Second was personally didn't like all that much, but can understand how it is a great film in it's own right. The Third however, is a steaming pile of shit that had me bored to tears and clawing at my face in boredom with it's 5 hours worth of conclusion points. It just... would not... END.
And as an aside: Sam and Frodo are totally gay for eachother.
Forrest Gump
Die Hard
Children of Men
The Bourne Films (although the links to the books get increasingly distant)
The Shining
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
I doubt many people would call these terrible.
[QUOTE=7DeadlySyns;23294374]I've been wondering this for a while. Why are they almost always so bad? Or even movies based off shows or comics. I can understand leaving out some unimportant details, but they always seem to skip the important stuff then add their own bullshit scene that never happened.
Could anyone explain why? I understand it's not an easy thing to do but honestly...[/QUOTE]
[B][I][I]rest in peace this thread[/I][/I][/B]
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I get the feeling op thought the only books made into movies are twilight and Harry potter
Because they have to cut a lot of shit from the book most of the time so it doesn't become a 19-hour movie.
An when they do this, it becomes very sluggish to watch.
When you read a book, you imagine the PERFECT visual representation for a movie. You create what the people look like and what the setting looks like based on the text. When you watch it in a movie you don't like it because its not what you imagined in my head. Also another reason is that they have to pick the most important parts to the story to show in the film. They might have to change some things or add some things for people who didn't read the book to understand.
[QUOTE=Rusty100;23294635]The Shawshank Redemption? Book.
Fight Club? Book.
Silence of the Lambs? Book.
American Psycho? Blade Runner? Children of Men? Minority Report? Artificial Intelligence? The Godfather? All based on books. The list just keeps going.[/QUOTE]
fight club was an AMAZING movie, it literely changed me (cant spell literely soz ):)
[QUOTE=mr hobo;23296976]When you read a book, you imagine the PERFECT visual representation for a movie. You create what the people look like and what the setting looks like based on the text. When you watch it in a movie you don't like it because its not what you imagined in my head. Also another reason is that they have to pick the most important parts to the story to show in the film. They might have to change some things or add some things for people who didn't read the book to understand.[/QUOTE]
Look at what they did to I am Legend, it's what 2/300 pages and takes an hour to read or so and they just mauled it completely, there's a couple of of amazing scenes in the book like when Neville's watch stops working and he has to get home before all his shits wrecked plus why couldn't they have the original ending of [sp]he encounters half human, half vampires, they kill all the other vampires and Neville ends up getting captured and executed[/sp].
[QUOTE=RearAdmiral;23296727]Forrest Gump
[b]Die Hard[/b]
Children of Men
The Bourne Films (although the links to the books get increasingly distant)
The Shining
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
I doubt many people would call these terrible.[/QUOTE]
Die Hard was a book?! Sure, I know the others listed were based on books, but Die Hard?! That must've been one fucking awesome book.
Oh, some more films based on books:
The Thing
Who framed Roger Rabbit?
Psycho
Fucking [i]Rambo[/i]
Dr Strangelove
Planet of the Apes
[QUOTE=TAU!;23297131]Die Hard was a book?! Sure, I know the others listed were based on books, but Die Hard?! That must've been one fucking awesome book.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Lasts_Forever_(1979_novel[/url])
[img]http://www.moviequick.com/images/covers/dvd/large/memoirs_of_a_geisha.jpg[/img]
One of my favourite movies.
[QUOTE=markg06;23297102]Look at what they did to I am Legend, it's what 2/300 pages and takes an hour to read or so and they just mauled it completely, there's a couple of of amazing scenes in the book like when Neville's watch stops working and he has to get home before all his shits wrecked plus why couldn't they have the original ending of [sp]he encounters half human, half vampires, they kill all the other vampires and Neville ends up getting captured and executed[/sp].[/QUOTE]
Probably because I Am Legend was the third iteration of the book. Not one of the films had a perfect representation of the book, yet put together, they add everything up.
1. [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man_on_Earth_(1964_film"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man_on_Earth_(1964_film)[/URL])
2. [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_man[/URL]
3. [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Legend_(film[/URL])
But as others have said, a large amount of films out their are adaptations of books.
What are you talking about? Twilight is great and that was a book :downs:
[QUOTE=GunsNRoses;23298504]What are you talking about? Twilight is great and that was a book :downs:[/QUOTE]
no
[QUOTE=RearAdmiral;23296727]
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
I doubt many people would call these terrible.[/QUOTE]
Dunno about Clockwork, but for 2001 Clarke wrote both the script and the novel. And I'm pretty sure he adapted the novel from the former. So not really based on a book as much as accompanied by a book. It really is unique like that. Film industry doesn't have any originality. At least games don't do that shit. There's no Mass Effect book and there's no fucking Heavy Rain book. :3
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