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

[TV's Adam West]

In b4 capeshit but Avengers Civil War.

The comics are fucking amazing and feature an amazing interaction between Captain America and Punisher, which ends with Cap attacking Frank, Spiderman almost dies, and the plot is generally just so much better.

 

[Fluoxetine Man]

Verhoven tried reading the book but was bored by it and gave up.

To be fair, Verhoven came on board when it originally was a unrelated screenplay called Bug Hunt at Outpost Nine, someone in production noticed the similarities to Starship Troopers and producers then licensed the novels name. Verhoven did get bored reading the book, and got Ed Neumeier (the guy who wrote Robocop) to tell him what happened.

Fun fact: Verhoven grew up near a German military base in the Netherlands in WWII, and had witnessed summary executions of Dutch people by Nazi occupiers, and Allied planes bombing and being shot down near where he lived. The reason why his films are so graphic is because he refuses to 'lie about the devastation it does to the human body.' (Invisible Force, American Cinematographer, August 2000)

In b4 capeshit but Avengers Civil War.

The comics are fucking amazing and feature an amazing interaction between Captain America and Punisher, which ends with Cap attacking Frank, Spiderman almost dies, and the plot is generally just so much better. Ver archivo adjunto 1114238

Marvel should have adapted The Mighty God Kings version of Civil War.

 

[Megaroad 2012]

I liked Annihilation until I read the books and thought holy shit, what a waste of good content.

 

[MAPK phosphatase]

Another issue with the film is the distinct lack of power armor and orbital drop pods for soldiers, something that was elevated to an almost religious status by the Mobile Infantry.

It's a shame that Halo (and so many others) did this part of Starship Troopers better than the actual Starship Troopers movie. Some day it's going to get the live action film adaptation it deserves. We'll just have to wait for the culture to shift, because such a militaristic book will never be portrayed with anything other than fascism in Hollywood.

 

[LazarusOwenhart]

Verhoven tried reading the book but was bored by it and gave up.

In fairness the book is, whilst being quite an important text on fascism and runaway militarism in a society, boring as everloving shit. I think the film stands alone as a good, cheesy, over the top sci fi action film and it's a shame that the sequels didn't expand upon an interesting universe and instead just expanded into a steaming cloud of shit.

 

[Whale Lake 2]

A Single Man is a movie that I love with all my heart, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Isherwood's novel. The novel's main character is living his life and complaining about modern times, reminiscing about the sixteen years he has spent with his now dead partner and, in the meanwhile, continuously stumbling into one of his students, a boy that is attracted to him but for which George feels nothing but paternal tenderness. In the movie, George is a very handsome and fascinating Colin Firth who rocks a suit and glasses and who is planning to kill himself once the day is done and who may or may not reciprocate the attraction his student feels for him.

From a very grounded, sometimes annoying, irritating, and yet completely realistic character, George has been transformed into a romantic hero whose life was centered about nothing but his partner, to the point that he has to kill himself now that he's gone.

Still an amazing movie, though.


Perks of Being a Wallflower was a shitty adaptation of a novel I really enjoyed, which is fucking dumb, because the writer of the novel is also the same guy that wrote the script and directed the movie. How the fuck do you ruin your own vision?

I liked Annihilation until I read the books and thought holy shit, what a waste of good content.

Annihilation's screenplay writing process is interesting because the writer did not re-read the book before working on the script, using solely what he remembered of the book. It doesn't make the movie better, but it's still a nice idea.

 

[Chan Fan]

Animal Farm. The version with Patrick Stewart as Old Major. I wasn't a fan and I preferred the cartoon. A lot of people seem to like the version with celebrities but I couldn't get into it.

Do you know whose fault that was? ...SNOWBALL!!!!!

 

[BrunoMattei]

It's a shame that Halo (and so many others) did this part of Starship Troopers better than the actual Starship Troopers movie. Some day it's going to get the live action film adaptation it deserves. We'll just have to wait for the culture to shift, because such a militaristic book will never be portrayed with anything other than fascism in Hollywood.

I want a hard R-rated Mars Attacks first. It can be animated just so long as it isn't entirely CGI.

 

[Shield Breaker]

Not a movie, but the tv show adaption of the Dresden Files sucked.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

Animal Farm. The version with Patrick Stewart as Old Major. I wasn't a fan and I preferred the cartoon. A lot of people seem to like the version with celebrities but I couldn't get into it.

The Song of the Grateful Duck sequence is a better adaptation of the spirit of Animal Farm than the rest of the movie. An absolutely brilliant four minutes in a sea of meh. Kinda like how the title sequence of the Watchmen movie is a better adaptation than the rest of it.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Not a movie, but the tv show adaption of the Dresden Files sucked.

Holy hell yes. What they did to Bob, making him the complete opposite of what he was like in the novels. I get not making him a talking, floating skull (sci-fi channel budget and all) but his personality was a sarcastic, loudmouthed, jerk but friendly pervert, not some prissy Dollar Tree version of Alfred Pennyworth.

 

[Angel Dust]

I could write a thesis on everything they fucked up with the dark tower movie

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

I could write a thesis on everything they fucked up with the dark tower movie

My brother told me that movie was a big pile of shit. Is it really Langoliers tier?

 

[verissimus]

Some stuff just works better in a book.
There's a reactor meltdown in Hunt for Red October. It's described step by step and it's one of the most frightening things I've ever read. It's not in the movie. How could you even film it?
Same thing with The Martian. I do like the film, but the book is so much more engrossing.

...huh. I don't remember that from The Hunt for Red October book.

 

[Angel Dust]

My brother told me that movie was a big pile of shit. Is it really Langoliers tier?

I'd say worse, because at least with the langoliers you can have a good laugh at the unintentional comedy

 

[Jason Wynn]

My brother told me that movie was a big pile of shit. Is it really Langoliers tier?

It's so much worse. It's still to this day the only adaptation that has legitimately pissed me off. Langoliers is corny, but you can grab a beer or some weed, get a few buddies together and have a good time laughing at it. It's a good riffing movie. Dark Tower, ESPECIALLY if you love the novels seems like it deliberately went out of it's way to be as soulless and completely devoid of everything that made the novels special. That movie is offensive to Tower fans.

 

[Someone in a Tree]

I want a hard R-rated Mars Attacks first. It can be animated just so long as it isn't entirely CGI.

Are you wanting it to be a comedy like the Burton film or more in line with the card series? I think that the Burton film, even though it was an enormous flop and not especially loved, has pretty much defined how the general audience perceived that franchise, which is remarkable since it was released nearly 35 years after the cards and the vast majority of Mars Attacks media is more akin to the source material. All those cards, comics, and board games can’t make a dent in a 100 minute movies stranglehold.

 

[BrunoMattei]

Are you wanting it to be a comedy like the Burton film or more in line with the card series? I think that the Burton film, even though it was an enormous flop and not especially loved, has pretty much defined how the general audience perceived that franchise, which is remarkable since it was released nearly 35 years after the cards and the vast majority of Mars Attacks media is more akin to the source material. All those cards, comics, and board games can’t make a dent in a 100 minute movies stranglehold.

Dark and no comedy.

 

[soy_king]

The Flashman Papers are some of the best historical fiction novels either lionizing or satirizing the 19th Century British Empire. The movie Royal Flash is an absolutely atrocious adaptation of the second novel in the series of the same name.

Also, Vladimir Bortko's adaptation of Master and Margarita, while a TV miniseries, was pretty bad.

 

[HeyYou]

1. It's a more obscure and fun story that manages to avoid some of the more awkward subtext present in many of his other stories.

Who cares about the subtext? For the worst stories, which inaccurately portray real ethnic groups and could reasonably cause offence, just make them more accurate or make them a fictional one. Otherwise, stories like Shadow over Innsmouth work fine just as they are. There are tons of readings you can take away from the story, just portray it accurately. For instance, I've always preferred the mental illness interpretation of the story, it was something that was very personal to Lovecraft. So much media rips off Innsmouth and his other stories anyways, might as well have balls and just adapt it.