Why are movies based on books almost always terrible?
89 replies, posted
[QUOTE=pointyface;23296877]I get the feeling op thought the only books made into movies are twilight and Harry potter[/QUOTE]
And the Golden Compass. *shudder*
Books can never make good movies, it is just common sense. Why do you think they stopped the Harry Potter franchise after the first movi- oh wait, nevermind... :downs:
[QUOTE=JaegerMonster;23296634]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.[/QUOTE]
I really liked Fellowship, aside from leaving out Tom Bombadil for time they pretty much got it 100% right. Also of course they started on the second book at the end too, but it makes for a better ending so who cares.
Then they started doing that shit where they make up their own shit in Towers. >:/
[QUOTE=BmB;23299225]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[/QUOTE]
Unless you count the books they write for fanboys :v:
Also, [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Video_games_based_on_books[/url]
You don't see it so much these days, but back in the olden days of computer gaming, you had the Discworld games, Betrayal at Krondor, Neuromancer, all that stuff.
harry potter owns.......
[QUOTE=BmB;23299225]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[/QUOTE]
Metro 2033 came out recently and that was based off of a book. So was Shadow Complex, The Witcher, STALKER and the Lord of the Rings MMOS.
But Coraline and Fantastic Mr Fox was based on a book and they did alright
[QUOTE=Nextil;23300784]Metro 2033 came out recently and that was based off of a book. So was Shadow Complex, The Witcher, STALKER and the Lord of the Rings MMOS.[/QUOTE]
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. wasn't based on a book, it was inspired by a book
A lot of the time it's because the director takes the book, and makes the movie their own. They don't try to pander to fans, and they don't try to stick word-to-word with the book. They did this with Fight Club, and that was fucking awesome.
I like movies based on books. I'm always too busy to read, so, atleast with movies I can get -some- knowlege on litterature.
Starship Troopers was based on a book but it was much different in the movie
Die Hard.
I rest my case.
The Road and No Country for Old Men as books were lame and average, as movies they were great and exciting hits.
I felt the movie did Watchmen justice. But I wish they could have fit [B][I][U]everything[/U][/I][/B] into it.
I'd sit through eight hours or however long it took.
Because internal characterization is hard to relate onscreen and movies don't last 9 hours with 50000 million budgets.
The Gettysburg film is pretty much a word-for-word adaptation of The Killer Angels. The book was boring as hell, but the movie was ok.
The movie is 4 hours long, and was trimmed down from 6.
I gotta admit, A Clockwork Orange had a good adaptation to film.
Fight Club is a great film based off an even better book
The movie adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist was very faithful to the book. It left out what I thought was an unneeded sex scene from the novella. The ending in the movie was very good compared to the decent one in the book.
The movie was directed by Frank Darabont and he also did The Shawshank Redemption which somebody else mentioned earlier in this thread. Also a great adaptation.
Frank Darabont seems to be very talented at going from the pages to the screen as I believe he's also responsible for the screenplay.
cuz they obviously just read the back and not the book
The Lord of the Rings BEGS TO DIFFER
I think you have a couple of big problems right off, with most bad adaptations:
One, moviemaking is not a one man operation. You have producers, director, stars, writers- all with their own input. They are not always in sync with what they bring to the movie. Books are usually written by one person, a person with total control over the content.
Sometimes what works on the page doesn't work as a movie. Keep in mind that people can pick up books for completely different reasons than the reasons that might encourage them to go see a movie. A guy reading a book is open to a different experience than when he is taking a date to a movie.
Sometimes I don't know, someone misses the point of the book I guess. Christine is one of S King's best books in my opinion. John Carpenter has made classic movies. Somehow, someway though, Carpenter's movie version of Christine is just 'meh' at best when it should have kicked ass.
It's the director's job to, well, direct everyone else and keep the vision integral isn't it?
[IMG]http://www.popartuk.com/g/l/lgpp0656+johnny-depp-fear-loathing-in-las-vegas-poster.jpg[/IMG]
One of the best book-to-screen adaptations I've seen.
To be honest, I think a Metro 2033 movie would be much better than a game.
Metro 2033's game wasn't anything special except visually, it'd be better if it was in the same world, but, more open and less plot orientated.
The movie version could follow the book properly though, and it'd be pretty sweeeeet.
Don't forget Fear and Loathing. That's a good film, based on a good book that's based on (or on mildly exaggerated) real stuff.
The Road
Fight Club
Forrest Gump
My fav's that are books to movies. Still waiting on Metro 2033.
Surprised no-one mentioned Jaws.
what about LOTR and Forrest Gump?
They aren't ALWAYS terrible.
[QUOTE=BCell;23300802]But Coraline and Fantastic Mr Fox was based on a book and they did alright[/QUOTE]
Both of those movies were great.
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