Movie Adaptations of Books/Games

[Hyde]

So I'm sitting here this evening, having decided to sit down and watch a movie...I just finished Neil Gaiman's book Stardust this evening, so I decided watching and experiencing the movie could only make the experience a bit more tactile. A bit more solid.

I was so very, very, grievously wrong.

This is absolutely one of the worst things I've ever seen. Now, I know Stardust the movie wasn't supposed to be a direct adaptation, but you'd think they'd at least keep with some of the major plot points. Instead, it keeps silly elements that don't matter and toss some of the best parts of the book out entirely.

It was written as a Fairy Tale for Adults, and ends up as a Fantasy Action Movie with little plot, Disney-style effects, and poor casting/design. The ENTIRETY of Robert De Niro's character in the movie, Captain Shakespeare(as if the name alone wasn't turning Sir William in his grave), was incredibly different in the book and should have remained as was IN the book.

This was one of the worst film adaptations of a book I've ever experienced and it made me SO aggravated, I felt it necessary to make a thread for all of us to discuss the AWFUL Nature of Book and Video game Film Adaptations.

So Talk away, kids....

PS: If you are interested in the movie Stardust, I recommend skipping it entirely and listening to Neil Gaiman read the Audio Book instead. He's a better voice actor than 90% of the people in this movie are Regular actors......though...do feel free to youtube the video of Robert DeNiro in drag dancing around.....no seriously...

[Sushi_b]

Video games....anything Uwe Boll has decided to make has been unbelievably bad.

House of the Dead
Alone in the Dark
Tomb Raider
Super Mario Brothers
Double Dragon

The list keeps going on. I don't even know of a single video game movie that is really well made. Comic books have faired much much better on the silver screen.

[Matron]

I usually hate book to movie adaptations. I end up spending the entire movie picking apart the things that they have changed from the books. I liked the Harry Potter movies a lot better before I started reading the books.

Others that come to mind are just about any Stephen King book-movie. At one time, I read pretty much anything King put out, and the movies were always wrong. It wasn't just that things got left out, but things getting changed entirely. I finally quit watching any movies made from his books unless I hadn't read the book. Of course I haven't read any of his books in years, last one being Desperation, I think. Didn't watch that movie either.

I know that they are making a movie out of Twilight, and from the things I've been seeing, they are changing quite a lot there too. For instance, there are werewolves in the movie, and they don't show up until the second novel in the series. They completely change some scenes, added a whole bunch in that weren't even in the book, and so I'm very wary about watching the movie.

Pretty much all video game movies stink as well, but I do admit to having a guilty pleasure kinda love for the Resident Evil movies, particularly the first and third ones.

[Cyrus the virus]

I loved the LOTR adaptations. People who shit on them are just hata's.

[Indigo]

If I read a book I never go for the movie. Because I know I'm gonna hate it.

[Jarrid]

Yeah, I did not like Stardust. I did not even like the book to tell you the truth, and I do like Gaiman, but I did watch the movie first, however. Oh, well.

Um, book to movie... would Apocalypse Now kind of count? :p

[Abominari]

Oh man, the list of sweet adaptations is so huge. I'm gonna post one tomorrow-ish.

[Hyde]

I loved the LOTR adaptations. People who shit on them are just hata's.

The movies were excellent. They managed to remain very very good and cogent despite not exactly being true to the books. LotR is the exception.

[Matron]

Yes, LotR is one of the few book to movie adaptations that turned out really well, those movies are in fact very high up on my favorite movies list. Let's hope The Hobbit movies turn out just as good.

[Phakiel]

A Clockwork Orange, surprisingly was a very straight book adaptation withint the boundaries of possibility. It was missing the last chapter which made a whole sense at the end of the story and it put a little bow on the entire ordeal but for an adaptation it was pretty close.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was a fantastic portrayal of the book. Sure its missing some of the stuff in the book but this is expected and it captured the chaotic drug filled atmosphere that the book had.

Super mario Bros killed my inocence.

[Atlas]

Super mario Bros killed my inocence.

I thought your Gym teacher did that.

[Phakiel]

I thought your Gym teacher did that.

No, that was aft...

Wait what?

Uh No, sir, i was not molested as a child!

You are mistaking me for Fallen.

[Atlas]

And... you're done.

:P

[Abominari]

Movies Adapting Books/Comics that have Abominari's Seal of Approval:
The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum
American Splendor
The Dark Knight
The 25th Hour
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
A History of Violence
The Shining
There Will Be Blood
Full Metal Jacket
Trainspotting
Rash?mon
Master and Commander
No Country for Old Men
Children of Men
Manhunter
Men in Black
L.A. Confidential
Ghost World
The Man with the Golden Arm
Muppet Treasure Island
The Bridge on the River Qwai
Sense & Sensibility
The Constant Gardener
Oldboy
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
To Kill A Mockingbird
Lord of the Flies
Fight Club
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Silence of the Lambs
A Clockwork Orange
Howard's End
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
American Psycho
The Godfather
The Godfather, Part II
Atonement
The Outsiders
Apocalypse Now
Jaws
Blade Runner
Rumble Fish
10 Things I Hate About You
Nosferatu
The Day of the Jackal
Jurassic Park
Clueless

And that's seriously everything that comes to mind. I know I'm missing tons, but sitting here listing whatever I can remember and enjoy is getting boring.

[Atlas]

I still need to see American Psycho.

[Hyde]

And that's seriously everything that comes to mind. I know I'm missing tons, but sitting here listing whatever I can remember and enjoy is getting boring.

Well...your list is...interesting...to say the least.

The Dark Knight is not an adaptation at all, however. It has comic Elements of the Joker, but really, it's just a movie in the Nolan Batman universe. I did appreciate the Throwbacks to The Killing Joke and A Death In The Family, amongst others, but...I don't know that it qualifies for this category. And Muppet Treasure Island? I mean, Really?

Alot of the books and such you listed were definitely good movies, but these really are the exception rather than the rule. For every Fight Club there is a Queen of the Damned(Which I enjoyed, but only because of some of my favorite actors being in it and the music was kickass but the movie sucked.)

You picked a lot of "loose" adaptations, where what I was talking about were more adaptations tending to be true to the book, and failing miserably. I mean, I understand that 10 Things I Hate About You was a loose adaptation of Taming of the Shrew, but still...

[King Zeal]

Iron Man and X2 didn't make Abom's list. I wonder why.

[Abominari]

And Muppet Treasure Island? I mean, Really?
Yeah, dude. Muppets are the tits.

Alot of the books and such you listed were definitely good movies, but these really are the exception rather than the rule.
I don't know about that. So many damn movies are based on books it's really hard to say one way or the other. Also, one thing my list doesn't include (for the most part -- American Splendor, for example, is an exception) are films based particularly on non-fiction books, which could easily double the size.

[Blackdragon]

After reading Dreamcatcher by Stephen King the movie terribly paled in comparison. If I remember correctly, they even changed the ending, which I thought was retarded.

Most of his other works that were transferred into movies were pretty decent to me: The Shining, Firestarter, Carrie, and Misery. Can't think of any others I've seen, think there was one about a house but the name escapes me.

[Matron]

Misery and Needful Things were both good movies, but they changed so much from the books that I just sat there the entire time, going "that's just not right!" I enjoy movies a lot more if I watch the movie first, then read the book.

[UO_Duck]

Silent Hill remains the best adaptation of a book/game I've ever seen.

[Syrus]

Live Action Street fighter and Starship troopers were two of the worst movies ever, and I think they both had Sean Claude Van Dam didn't they?

[Hyde]

Live Action Street fighter and Starship troopers were two of the worst movies ever, and I think they both had Sean Claude Van Dam didn't they?

Well...First of all....it's JEAN Claude Van Dam.

And Secondly, no, he was not in Starship Troopers.

[Matron]

I think he's thinking of Casper Van Dien or however you spell it.

[Phakiel]

WOAH HOLD THE **** DOWN!

Starship troopers is one of the best damn movies ever made. I loved it when I first saw the trailer featuring Blur's Song 2 and when i first saw it at mere 13 years old and to this day I always watch it whenever I can. If I bought movies, that would certainly be one of my top purchases.

You just have to embrace the cheesiness and hilarity of the movie and the delicious satire it provides. And also read the book. They have little relation this is true, but at its core, Verhoeven did provide some of what Heinlein wrote about. I dont know how he did it since he said he only read the first chapter and quit because he got bored, even though the first chapter does provide more action than the rest.

[Nickoten]

A large portion of Akira Kurosawa's works are adaptations of written works, including Rashomon, Yojimbo, Throne of Blood, and Ran, all of which are classics and some of my favorite movies, especially Yojimbo. I don't feel that movie adaptations are by nature awful, but I do think that the intended audience of the original work has a big effect on this.

See, for example, Watchmen, which has the misfortune of being a comic book about masked heroes which does not lend itself well to extended fight scenes and violence. It's just not a book that can easily be translated to film in the first place considering it will have lost much of its context to a modern theater going audience, much less sell tickets to them without horribly misrepresenting itself in the trailers.

Now video game movies, on the other hand, do kind of tend to be bad by nature to the extent that even a decent or mediocre one appears to be stellar by comparison.

And if the Dark Knight isn't an adaptation since it uses characters in a reinvented universe rather than a specific plot line, do video game movies like Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros, etc count as adaptations when they essentially invent a new universe with (In some cases) similar characters? Because I'd say that Street Fighter's live action movie is not an adaptation at all - it follows absolutely none of the plot (And yes there is one, albeit a convoluted retconned mess of one) of the game, after all.

For the record, I do see Batman Begins and The Dark Knight as adaptations, but of the Batman comic universe rather than specific Batman comics. I can see why some would disagree though.

[Abominari]

Yeah, dude, Starship Troopers rules the coop. I can't believe I forgot that one.