Poll: Does ignorance of source material annoy you?

[verdant monkai]

This may need some explanation.... are you part of a fanbase which has received media attention recently? Are you slightly annoyed that the masses watch one film, and are now proclaiming themselves devoted fans of the fandom, when they have no knowledge of the source material?

For example Super Heroes are the best example of this. All the complete cretins will go and watch one X-men film and then laugh at me when I say I like Cyclops. They tell me "Cyclops is shit because he died when Phoenix kissed him". Yeah No that never happened, maybe it did in the film you just saw but that's just a money grubbing rip off of the comics. It just annoys me when I'm told that I'm wrong about these characters I've known for years, by people who saw a comic book movie a couple of months ago.

One of the worst cases is Resident Evil. It really pisses me off when I am talking about Resi 4 and someone chimes in with "Dude what are you talking about the main character is a girl called Alice, and she never went to any castle". Excuse my language but no fuck you, Resident Evils 4's main Character is Leon S Kennedy, it is set in a creepy castle/island and it was released in 2005 on the damn Gamecube. I'm not talking about the cash in film, I MEAN THE GAME IT WAS BASED OFF.

Breathe......

I know I sound like the most revolting elitist fanboy ever. But I was just wondering if anyone else ever feels this way. I know that making comic books more mainstream can only really be a good thing because we'll get more stuff out of them. I'm personally not a fan of most of the films due to their disregard of the source material, not to say they are all bad films though. The Dark Knight was fantastic. Again know what I sound like, but it does annoy me when the fantastic source material is over shadowed by Hollywood crap.

 

[Legion]

If they were particularly obnoxious about it then it'd annoy the hell out of me, but it's not something that I have really experienced.

It does get on my nerves when people are not even aware that there is a source material, but act like they are experts or huge fans of the subject though.

 

[Silvanus]

Weeeeell, these options don't quite cover me, I'm afraid.


I'm a big comics fan, and I'd love more awareness of/ respect for that medium. That said, I enjoyed the X-Men films, and I've always felt that different interpretations (and complete retellings) were kind of bread-and-butter to the superhero genre.

Obviously, the above only holds true insofaras they stay true, generally, to the spirit of the characters and themes. An example of this not being the case would be Deadpool & Gambit in the Wolverine movies. Goddamn awful.



As for R.E., I'm also a fan of the original games. Admittedly, I've never played #4; I've only played #1, #2, Nemesis and Code Veronica. The movies do seem to fail to capture what made the games great, buuuuuuuut....

...so do the later games, from what I've seen. In your poll, you mention Wesker's death in a volcano as being the "right" interpretation. But, Wesker's character had been pushed beyond ludicrous in the later games themselves. Bloody Superpowers? Screaming tentacle-monsters? No,no,no.

So, I wouldn't say the betrayal of the series was entirely the films' doing. Evil Super-Wesker defying gravity is just as much a betrayal of Resident Evil as the films are.

 

[Rylot]

If anything I wish more people had read the Scott Pilgrim comics before seeing the movie. A lot of things were fleshed out and the movie did a lot to call back the aesthetics of the comics that I think a lot of movie goers missed out on that I really enjoyed.

Also Spider-Man 3... yeah, just everything about that film.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

but I can't stand it when people who don't know much about a piece of work act like they are experts on the subject.

i like to refer to these people as "posers", but they do aggravate me to no end, if there was ever a button on me that sent me into full rage mode, it's posers that are smashing it nonstop.

OT: when it comes to entertainment, i generally notice it and i usually internally nitpick at it, but if it is still GOOD entertainment, then i generally am fine with it.

 

[DementedSheep]

No...well a little. It won't make me angry at the person as long as they are admitting they are devoted fans of adaptation not the source material. I get more annoyed at at the people actually making terribly inaccurate adaptions.
I know people get annoyed at some saying they are fans of Marvel when they don?t read comics but I think most of the time they mean they are fans of the MCU. In cases like your X-men example the problem is that your not talking about the same version of Cyclops.

It?s annoying if they then pretend to know about the source material which they have never read of course but I don?t see legit cases of that often. It also sucks when some crappy movie adaptations get poplar when the source material is great but not that popular but this happens with everything, what is great and what is not is an opinion and being fans of the adaption might get some into the source material eventually. If they don't know the source material exist tell them! Maybe they will end up buying it. If they don't have any interest in the source material, well fine. Its not a requirement to enjoy the adaptations.

 

[marche45]

Yes, a little.

I understand that adapting across mediums might require you to change some things,but you've got to remember why you are doing it in the first place.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Kinda, I mean I can't opening say yes to it since it would make me a hypocrite-

I'm a Gundam fan but I never fully watched the original Universial Century series (I became a Gundam fan after since Gundam Wing).
I'm into comicbook despite not reading that many (I mostly read the character profile online and whatever Marvel and DC comicbooks they got at the local library).

I suppose the media that I can say yes while being fully familiar with the source material is probably Transformers G1. While I have no problem with the newer incarnation of the franchise but it does annoyed me when a few people dismiss the G1 cartoon. I mean yes that shows does got many flaws like the animation error but none the less most of the newer cartoon do pay tribute/ respect to the very first shows via references.

 

[The]

I think if they can create their own interpretations or expand on things a little more, I don't mind too much. But if it reaches the level of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, we've got a problem.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

This is pretty much the reason I can't stand to watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist anime anymore, because they changed so many things and took to the plot to such a stupid path that it felt more like a soap opera that was trying too hard to make fans cry...which wasn't true to the spirit of the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga.

 

[ToastiestZombie]

I think if they can create their own interpretations or expand on things a little more, I don't mind too much. But if it reaches the level of M. Night Shyamalan's The Last Airbender, we've got a problem.

I've never watched TLA or the movie, what was so bad about it? What did M. Night Shymalan change?

OT: Yep, I do get annoyed. The next time I hear someone call Link, Zelda, or Big Boss Solid Snake I'm gonna punch 'em. Well, not punch them, but I'll be angry nonetheless.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I'd say a little bit. But people proclaiming something out of their ignorance are no worse than devoted fans who will bash on anyone who just got into their source material.

 

[Silvanus]

There are a few people upset over the changes made to the Song of Ice and Fire series in order to adapt it for Game of Thrones. Honestly, I find that to be quite amusing. They've captured the tone and themes of the story so brilliantly, and the changes that people tend to find issue with are so minor.


They've left out the character of Edric Storm, for example, merging his role with Gendry. People were genuinely irritated by this. It seems like the most minor and convenient of differences to me, one that really doesn't matter.

 

[madwarper]

This is pretty much the reason I can't stand to watch the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga anymore,

I assume you mean the anime...

because they changed so many things and took to the plot to such a stupid path that it felt more like a soap opera that was trying too hard to make fans cry...which wasn't true to the spirit of the original Fullmetal Alchemist manga.

They had only changed a few things, but the main reason the original anime is different is because the manga was being written from 2001 to 2010, and the anime was made in 2003-2004. That's at least 6 years of material that didn't exist when the original anime was being made. And, during that time, Arakawa (FMA's writer) gave the anime team insights into the world in general, but didn't actively take part in the writing the anime's plot.

So, it's not so much a case of ignorance, but a divergent path that's why the original anime and the manga/Brotherhood are so different.

 

[NightmareExpress]

I get annoyed when somebody says (as an example):

"Wow, x sounds/looks/feels a lot like y!"

Where x was released much earlier and y was heavily inspired by it.
Switching the two around would make that sentence a lot more palatable to me.
Because, as it stands, that sentence partially sounds like it's implying that y was the original and x decided to work off of it when the converse is true.

Petty, I know.
Not even necessarily complete ignorance of source material, either.

 

[Daft Time]

It just annoys me when I'm told that I'm wrong about these characters I've known for years, by people who saw a comic book movie a couple of months ago.

These people aren't wrong. You have to realise that an adaptation's material is no less valid than the original - especially in the case of comic book continuity - just because you prefer one interpretation over the other. You just need to be clear about which one you're discussing.

That said, something really piss me off. When I see somebody arguing against something I like, make seemingly incoherent claims are about the material then say something along the lines of "oh, I only saw one episode and it wasn't the first" I get really pissed. I see it all the time in regards to Firefly where somebody is telling me how much undeserved love it gets with almost zero knowledge of what he's discussing.

 

[verdant monkai]

These people aren't wrong. You have to realise that an adaptation's material is no less valid than the original - especially in the case of comic book continuity - just because you prefer one interpretation over the other. You just need to be clear about which one you're discussing.

I'm talking about the guys who act like their experts and have been devoted fans for years, when all they've done is seen one movie. So yeah I'd say these people are pretty wrong if they try and tell me I'm incorrect with regards to say Leon being Resi 4's protagonist.

 

[verdant monkai]

The poll is broken.

Thanks I think I fixed it. It's not the first time this has happened to me.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Depends. I don't mind filmmakers changing things within reason if it would work better in film (like the end of Watchmen. I understand that giant alien-squid would have been pretty jarring) or if it's genuinely a better idea (Spiderman having web cartridges is dumb).

Usually with comic book adaptations especially, I'm relatively lenient. It makes sense to treat it as another universe rather than an adaptation (like how Marvel refer to their 'Cinematic Universe' just as there's 'Ultimate' Universe etc).

That said, I can get annoyed if things are changed for reasons I disagree with. For example, Danny Boyle's version of The Beach was just turned into a vehicle for girls to squee over Leonardo DiCaprio. Richard's not American, he doesn't sleep with anyone... So many things were wrong.