Bad Book to Film Adaptations - or I expected nothing and I’m still let down

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I always thought the adaptation of World War Z was the highest quality of shit I'd ever seen.
It would be hard to adapt a movie from that book, but they didn't seem to put all that much effort into it.

Alternatively excellent adaptation was "In The Heart Of The Sea" It's a historical book about the wreck of the Essex, which inspired Moby Dick. The film adaptation was expertly done.
 
I thought that a filum adaption of the Koran would be a good idea, but then I realised Islamic State already did it and it as live TV. And boy we folks pissed.
 
My big problem with Hitchhiker’s Guide was that it felt like it was produced by people who thought they were funny, rather than actual funny people. The philosophy seemed to be “let’s just throw as much crazy stuff at the audience as possible.” Like, “Hey, you know what would make this joke extra-funny? If we drew as much attention to it as possible!” There were lots of bits where I half-expected the actors to turn to the camera and say, “That’s crazy!”
 
The most recent 3 Musketeers by Paul W.S. Anderson.

Apparently, the epic swordfights, chases and chandelier swinging wasn't cool enough so good ol' Paul cranked it up 800%.
Now, the Musketeers are G.I. Joe and they even have Mission Impossible style gadgets.
Milady De Winter was smart and cunning in the book and would use her charisma and sex appeal to get what she wants. If you crossed her, she would frame you for some crime, poison you or stab you in your sleep.
In the movie, she does Matrix style kung fu instead.
Prince Buckingham has a steampunk airship because 500 dudes clashing with each other in a giant brawl isn't good enough for a climax.

The only good part of that movie is strangely enough Orlando Bloom but only because he knows that he's in a bad movie and is overacting a lot.

Every TV miniseries based on a Stephen King book.
Yes, that includes IT with Tim Curry.
 
Eragon is one of the worst book to screen adaptations I have ever seen. The books already had accusations that it was a Star Wars ripoff (which to be honest, it kinda was but it doesn't really bother me), and the movie made it worse by remaking the scene with Luke looking into the twin suns from A New Hope.
 
I thought American Psycho, while a good movie, was a bad adaptation.

In the book, Bateman and his coworkers dress like fucking clowns and they didn't in the movie.

A Scanner Darkly was a good adaptation, though. So was Ender's Game. My friend who never read the book liked the twist at the End.
 
I've seen and enjoyed a few Dracula movies, but I'd like it if someone properly adapted the book into either a movie or miniseries. Keep all the main characters in there, and keep them accurate. And don't make Dracula and Mina reincarnated lovers.

Idiotron dijo:
The only good part of that movie is strangely enough Orlando Bloom but only because he knows that he's in a bad movie and is overacting a lot.
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I love performances like that. I've never read the book it's based on, but I saw Seventh Son. Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore were the only ones who seemed to realize how bad the movie was, so they just said "screw it" and hammed it up, making them the most entertaining parts of the movie.
Not an adaptation, but Billy Zane was the same way in Scorpion King 3. "You're slaves!" he shouts. "Slaves, slaves, slaves, slaves, slaves!" he continues as he walks away. "Slaaaaaaaaves!" he sings from off-camera.
 
breadandcircuses dijo:
I thought American Psycho, while a good movie, was a bad adaptation.

In the book, Bateman and his coworkers dress like fucking clowns and they didn't in the movie.

A Scanner Darkly was a good adaptation, though. So was Ender's Game. My friend who never read the book liked the twist at the End.
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Scanner Darkly mention reminds me of Blade Runner. It isn't a bad bad adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but the book is much better as the coolest parts of the book (like the android police station, android pets etc.) are omitted from the movie altogether.
 
Idiotron dijo:
Every TV miniseries based on a Stephen King book.
Yes, that includes IT with Tim Curry.
Presiona para expandir...

Eh, The Stand I didn't think was too bad. It's not great, but it's decent enough considering it was an early 90s network tv thing. I'd like to see an HBO or Showtime miniseries done of it where they're allowed to stay a little closer to the novel.

It really was garbage though. Either that or The Shining miniseries I think is the worst.
 
The Disaster Artist. It missed so much that made the book interesting. So much was cut out that it's a travesty such as:

Greg Sestero starting out as a struggling actor.

Greg dealing with a casting couch situation with a gay executive.

Greg's first night trying to get inside Tommy's place and having to sleep in a rundown hotel because he didn't have a key.

Tommy Wiseau being... Tommy Wiseau.

Tommy recording all of his phone calls with Greg.

One of Greg's friends questioning Tommy over his origin leading to Tommy kick Greg out of his car and kick him out of his apartment and changing his mind.

Tommy and Greg watching The Talented Mr. Ripley and Tommy being inspired by it (and seeing himself in that character, a guy pretending to be someone else) that directly lead to him deciding to make his own movie.

Gregg wanting nothing to do with the Room and Tommy paying him a "large amount of money" plus a new car to act in the movie and also act as an assistant director and everything else.


I know it's in the movie but there's so much more. This one shot, just the ONE shot of Tommy walking out of that little shack took THREE HOURS TO FILM. 24 takes. It was Greg's idea that he sit in the corner so Tommy could look at him and Tommy had the idea of having the water bottle so he'd have something to work with.

Tommy most likely originally living somewhere in Poland, emigrating to France, dealing with corrupt police officers, his obsession with Disney and all things American, and escaping to America.

The fact that Tommy owned a 5 story building in San Francisco that Greg never knew about that was used for pick up shots for The Room.

And still more I'm sure. The movie is so poorly made and the only thing it has going for it is James Franco's Tommy impression.

Autumnal Equinox dijo:
Eh, The Stand I didn't think was too bad. It's not great, but it's decent enough considering it was an early 90s network tv thing. I'd like to see an HBO or Showtime miniseries done of it where they're allowed to stay a little closer to the novel.

It really was garbage though. Either that or The Shining miniseries I think is the worst.
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Reminds me: there was an attempt at a Stand movie directed by George Romero and it would have been a two-parter. The script is out there but it never got off the ground because it was too expensive. It's ripe for another attempt at a big screen adaptation.
 
Spoonge dijo:
got mentioned before in the thread but I have to second I Am Legend.
I love the book's ending with Robert in the cell musing about how he became the evil that the new vampire society would fear, that he's killed so many of them that his death is not only inevitable but necessary for this new form of civilisation to flourish.
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I agree with you on I Am Legend, but I have to disagree for Wild Wild West. I have a soft spot for the original Tv series, and that movie just wasn't as enjoyable.

I'm going to have to say Island of Dr. Moreau. I love the book, I know it's a product of it's time, but the 96 movie is just wow.
 
Oskar Dirlewanger dijo:
Scanner Darkly mention reminds me of Blade Runner. It isn't a bad bad adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but the book is much better as the coolest parts of the book (like the android police station, android pets etc.) are omitted from the movie altogether.
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It's tough; I think the movie is quite good, and many of the core elements of the book still remain. Most of the plot is still relatively similar. However, characters are either removed, added, or changed pretty significantly. The setting is pretty dramatically different. And they pretty much completely removed the whole "religion as social engineering" sub-plot. The whole Mercerism sub-plot was really unique, and is pretty central to the world of the novel. I felt like, after reading the novel, I actually understood why those specific questions were in the Voight-Kampff test.

So...I don't think it's a bad adaptation, but I don't think it's a particularly good one. Still one of my favorite movies, though.
 
Dom Cruise dijo:
The book is actually pretty great, I hate that the embarrassing movie is all anyone knows, with the talking gorilla and shooting gorillas with laser beams and "Stop eating my sesame cake!", none of which was in the book.
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I got to meet Bruce Campbell once. He gave a talk to a small audience I happened to be a part of, for Reasons. One of the things I asked him was, given how his career was largely being the B-listingest B-lister that ever B-listed, was there any movie he really, really regretted.

His answer was something to the effect of "No, but if there was, it would be Congo."

Dom Cruise dijo:
And to a lesser degree Sphere, although that movie was just mediocre and not as infamously bad as Congo, still a poor adaption of a better book though.
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Yeah, no, I won't even give it that much credit Sphere was a bad movie. It was a terrible adaptation of a reasonably creepy and interesting book, that utterly squandered some very solid acting talent and not-terrible special effects by completely bastardizing the screenplay and directing.

To be fair to the director and/or script writer... for some reason... I can imagine how it would be a tough book to adapt to a movie. For a relatively short stand-alone book it actually was a very slow burn, where every time one mystery got solved it just gave way to another, and as the layers got peeled away the tone shifted from mystery, to awe, to wonder, to suspicion, to fear, to terror, then finally into fucking existential horror. The movie only really had time for about two of those beats.
 
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