Movies that are nothing like the book
- Thread starter The_Lost_King
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Once again we don't fully grasp what adaptation is. It is not saying "see this graphic novel, Don't change a bloody thing." It is saying, see this character, I'm going to make the story around him. This little throw away conversation provides crucial background information, so I'll work on making it more important. These characters have complete story arcs, but they add nothing to the story I'm creating. They need to go, get combined, or rewritten entirely to work in my variant.
A lot of these adaptations commit the cardinal sin of not being written by you. You would consider different parts of the story and that's fine. The screenplay author choose what parts work for him and made the story that way.
A lot of these adaptations commit the cardinal sin of not being written by you. You would consider different parts of the story and that's fine. The screenplay author choose what parts work for him and made the story that way.
Since Eragon was mentioned, and it does have like...some of the main characters, and dragons and stuff...I'm going to go with a Series of Unfortunate Events. The books have a quirky and not at all uplifted sense of humour that is fairly unique, the movie, which combined the first 3 books in what I can only call a f***ing catastrophe, was completely crazy. They necessarily had to cut a lot of things out, but that doesn't excuse changing the entire atmosphere. As an incredibly unfortunate side effect, it was so shitty that they will probably never adapt any more of the books more tastefully. Bit like Alex Rider really, we're not going to see another one of those either.
And while I'm at it, the Hunger Games was pretty faithful to the source considering the condensing they had to do, but they left out the mayor's daughter, who is sort of important later. Which I find surprising, you'd think it wouldn't be too much effort.
And while I'm at it, the Hunger Games was pretty faithful to the source considering the condensing they had to do, but they left out the mayor's daughter, who is sort of important later. Which I find surprising, you'd think it wouldn't be too much effort.
Since Eragon was mentioned, and it does have like...some of the main characters, and dragons and stuff...I'm going to go with a Series of Unfortunate Events. The books have a quirky and not at all uplifted sense of humour that is fairly unique, the movie, which combined the first 3 books in what I can only call a f***ing catastrophe, was completely crazy. They necessarily had to cut a lot of things out, but that doesn't excuse changing the entire atmosphere. As an incredibly unfortunate side effect, it was so shitty that they will probably never adapt any more of the books more tastefully. Bit like Alex Rider really, we're not going to see another one of those either.
And while I'm at it, the Hunger Games was pretty faithful to the source considering the condensing they had to do, but they left out the mayor's daughter, who is sort of important later. Which I find surprising, you'd think it wouldn't be too much effort.
And iRobot, but I still liked that movie so...yeah.
And while I'm at it, the Hunger Games was pretty faithful to the source considering the condensing they had to do, but they left out the mayor's daughter, who is sort of important later. Which I find surprising, you'd think it wouldn't be too much effort.
And iRobot, but I still liked that movie so...yeah.
Eragon. I know people have said other things like how Arya looks nothing like a elf but I am going to say that in the first book Saphira was growing up over time and getting bigger but in the movie she is a baby dragon one day and the next she can fly and poof shes a massive dragon also Brom doesn't tell Eragon that hes a dragon rider until he dies and after he die he goes to the shades hideout and frees Arya. There were suppose to have more Dwarfs than human.
Im going to go the other way, a movie ending I preferred more then the original story: Stephen Kings "The Mist" so preferred the movie ending to the one from the story.
The Golden Compass.
The book was brilliant. The movie was terribad.
I would explain further, but the memory is painful.
The book was brilliant. The movie was terribad.
I would explain further, but the memory is painful.
Priest. If it wasn't for the fact that it had 'based on the best-selling graphic novel' in the hype I would never in a million years made the connection. I honestly don't know why they bothered, because all this could achieve is pissing off the existing fanbase and flying right over the heads of anyone who didn't know it was a manhwa.
For those not in the know, Priest the manhwa is about an undead Priest who is also sort of a cowboy (I think?) and looks like this...
It's essentially the wild west with vampires.
The film Priest looks like this:
Now the titular Priest is a ninja in the future who also seems to be channeling Kaneda from Akira.
The trailer only seems to further solidify that idea that this films link to the manhwa is by name and name alone.
For those not in the know, Priest the manhwa is about an undead Priest who is also sort of a cowboy (I think?) and looks like this...
It's essentially the wild west with vampires.
The film Priest looks like this:
Now the titular Priest is a ninja in the future who also seems to be channeling Kaneda from Akira.
The trailer only seems to further solidify that idea that this films link to the manhwa is by name and name alone.
One of the greatest offenders is Relic.
Great creature flick, but so much was changed from the book.
1) the book takes place in New York, but the movie takes place in Chicago (as a Chicago suburbanite this actually doesn't bother me LOL)
2) The book refers to the creature as the Mbwun, but in the movie it is called the Kathoga
3) The Amazonian tribe is called Kathoga, but in the movie they called them something else (can't remember to be honest)
4) Dr. Frock lives in the book but dies in the movie
5) Smithback is missing from the movie (major recurring character in the authors' books)
6) biggest issue is right here: THERE IS NO PENDERGAST!
All in all, both the movie an book are great! However, so much was change, that they are almost different IPs. I will say this though: Tom Sizemore makes a perfect Vincent D'Agosta, and Penelope Ann Miller makes a pretty good Margo Green
Great creature flick, but so much was changed from the book.
1) the book takes place in New York, but the movie takes place in Chicago (as a Chicago suburbanite this actually doesn't bother me LOL)
2) The book refers to the creature as the Mbwun, but in the movie it is called the Kathoga
3) The Amazonian tribe is called Kathoga, but in the movie they called them something else (can't remember to be honest)
4) Dr. Frock lives in the book but dies in the movie
5) Smithback is missing from the movie (major recurring character in the authors' books)
6) biggest issue is right here: THERE IS NO PENDERGAST!
All in all, both the movie an book are great! However, so much was change, that they are almost different IPs. I will say this though: Tom Sizemore makes a perfect Vincent D'Agosta, and Penelope Ann Miller makes a pretty good Margo Green
Yeah, that's why I tried thinking up a different answer.Sean Hollyman said:
They tried slapping three of the books all together at once, so it was a bit slipshod.I still liked the movie, though, I wonder if it never made enough of a return to continue making more of the series?
The worst that comes to mind is Starship Troopers. Other than a few names and a plot about a war against bugs, there is no similarity. I'm still waiting for powered armor.
I think some of the later books like The Slippery Slope and Grim Grotto would have been difficult to film, thoughshrekfan246 said:Yeah, that's why I tried thinking up a different answer.Sean Hollyman said:
I still liked the movie, though, I wonder if it never made enough of a return to continue making more of the series?
Maybe they could do a reboot, and do it in CGI or something. That could work..
After looking up the matter, apparently they were still in talks of sequels in 2009, but they were worried about the age of the actors who had been in the first film. I think a CGI reboot could actually work pretty well.Sean Hollyman said:I think some of the later books like The Slippery Slope and Grim Grotto would have been difficult to film, thoughshrekfan246 said:Yeah, that's why I tried thinking up a different answer.Sean Hollyman said:
I still liked the movie, though, I wonder if it never made enough of a return to continue making more of the series?
Maybe they could do a reboot, and do it in CGI or something. That could work..
Basically the entire movie plays out sort of like the book (with a few exceptions like the dog being substituted for a woman/vampire, and the protagonist being an alcoholic - haven't read it in a while, that's not certain) right to the last few minutes. I'll spoiler this up for anyone else, but I'm going to assume you'll want to read it.Jaeke said:
Basically you get hints that the vampires are intelligent throughout the film, like the parts where they set pretty clever traps for Will Smith, and they display a social system, which is shown when Will Smith kidnaps one and the big guy comes out into the sun and is really angry. The book ends with him finding out that he's been killing women and children in an innocent society, and he is most likely going to be put to death under their laws. He is a legend in that he has effectively committed genocide and everyone is scared of him. In the movie however, he entirely disregards the evidence and sets off a grenade about 5m away from the people he's trying to protect. It entirely misses the point of the book.
That said, I didn't hate the movie until I'd read the book.
"Wanted.
Comics: Secret cabal of supervillians run the world after killing off all the superheroes. Everyday working class guy finds out he's been born into this society. There's a character made entirely of poo.
Movie: Secret cabal of assassins find their targets because of a loom. Everyday working class guy finds out he's been born into this society. Morgan Freeman swears at people."
I hated Wanted for its childish ultra violence but when I heard about a movie adaptation I thought 'Oh cool, the film will cut down on all that stupid stuff and might actually have something interesting to say about a world run by super-villains. Then I see it and find out they changed everything EXCEPT the childish power fantasy. Not even Morgan Freemans badass one line could save this....
Comics: Secret cabal of supervillians run the world after killing off all the superheroes. Everyday working class guy finds out he's been born into this society. There's a character made entirely of poo.
Movie: Secret cabal of assassins find their targets because of a loom. Everyday working class guy finds out he's been born into this society. Morgan Freeman swears at people."
I hated Wanted for its childish ultra violence but when I heard about a movie adaptation I thought 'Oh cool, the film will cut down on all that stupid stuff and might actually have something interesting to say about a world run by super-villains. Then I see it and find out they changed everything EXCEPT the childish power fantasy. Not even Morgan Freemans badass one line could save this....
Both Minority Report and Total Recall are very loosely based off of PDK short stories. PDK almost never wrote an action scene in his life, yet all his stories got turned into action movies. I enjoyed both movies, but they only use a few basic ideas and go from there.