You ever read a book or play a video game and really enjoy it a lot? (of course you have that was rhetorical) Then later you find out that the book is being turned into a movie and you are very excited for it. Only to find out that it has absolutely nothing to do with the thing with which its based off of?
now first off I'd like to say that this has nothing to do with terrible sequels or poorly done movies based on books. I'm talking about ones that have NOTHING to do with the original except for the title.
Now I don't read a lot...ok I don't read at all but when I was in grade school I read things that were required. (Well ok I only ever read the right hand page, because it made the book half as long and I could still pretty much get the jest of it, plus some help from spark notes) but here is some literature that I read in school and later watched the movie thinking to myself "wtf was that?"
I first realized this cheap trick when I was a young boy watching the film Super Mario Bros. expecting an incredible adventure in the mushroom kingdom with Mario and Luigi saving Princess Toadstool from Bowser. Instead I got some humans claiming to be koopa troopas and some weird sorry excuse for yoshi along with my first taste of what would be many of life's disappointments.
Second was in middle school we read the novel The Rats of Nimh. Following the read our teacher let us watch the movie which was a disappointment and nothing like the book but we got to skip a few classes watching the film so you didn't hear me complain.
My sophomore year of high school we read a lot of the tales of king Arthur and the knights of the round table that same year a film titled King Arthur came out. How perfect I thought I'll take my girl friend to see it and I can impress her with all of my knowledge about him... nothing like the stories...
Now I could go on and on about these disappointment but I'll wrap it up with one more and that was my senior year of high school we read about the most bad ass dude ever Beowulf. Year later a film supposedly based off the epic poem was released again to my dismay the film was terrible and had nothing to do with the actual story. sure the names were the same that is all that was the same for any of these movies.
I know there are plenty of other examples like this I just don't read enough. Comments? experiences similar to mine? let it all out
7 years ago
beowulf was similar to the book, the movie just was an epic pile of shist
ReplyDeleteBeing an avid reader I know a lot about this subject. There have been tons of adaptations of books that have gone so off track it's ridiculous.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ocl.net/bookinfo/if/movies.shtml
Though there have been plenty of failures I feel like some adaptations have been wonderful. Lord of the Rings for example. Sure, the movies were missing chunks from the books and they changed certain characters and yadda yadda, but it was still an epically awesome trilogy. I have always found it wise to look at a movie completely separate from the book because I find myself let down one to many times when I think of them as the same entity.
there have been plenty of awesome movies based off books. Fight Club, my favorite movie, is a perfect example like LOR. Also those damn twilight movies are apparently on track and the Harry Potter movies. Chronicles of Narnia the Bourne trilogy and so on and so forth. Obviously they are not exactly the same but I'm talking about movies that have NOTHING to do with the thing they are based on except for the same character names
ReplyDelete...actually it would be impressive to find me a good movie that isn't based off of a previous work...
ReplyDeleteHaha, good look with that. It's been a long time since an orginal work has come out. They keep doing remakes. I think hollywood writers have run out of ideas.
ReplyDeleteIts true, even Avatar is based off of Pocahontas. Think about it. The Co-coam character even looks just like Co-coam. They also have a big willow tree that the people kind of look to as a bridge to the divine. I kept waiting for that general to start singing, "Savages, savages, barely even human!"
ReplyDeleteNot really, but sort of an answer to the question posed:
ReplyDeleteI watched the movie "The Princess Diaries," and thought - cute and fun movie! I think I'll read the book!
I read the book "The Princess Diaries," and thought - cute and fun book, which so surpasses the movie in every possible way that the movie just became really stupid! They changed so many things, for NO good reason, and it made me angry.
Then I watched the movie "The Princess Diaries 2," and was delighted that in the opening credits, they say something like, "Based on characters created by Meg Cabot." Suddenly, I was completely fine with it. As long as they're not even PRETENDING to base it off the books, they can do anything they want. And it looks like they wanted to make a cute and fun movie. Cause they did.
EXAMPLE 2:
I love the movie "Forrest Gump." So I read [listened to] the [audio] book. dumb, Dumb, DUMB! They made many changes for the movie, and in my opinion, they were AWESOME changes. Don't ever bother with the book. It's dumb. The basics are the same, but that's about it.
EXAMPLE 3:
"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving is a GREAT book. "Simon Birch" is an okay movie. But it is so incredibly loosely based on the book, that it is pretty much a completely different story. Some of the same elements are there, and people who have read the book would recognize them, but there are tons of changes and even more things that were left out. And no surprise, seeing as how the book is something like 500-600 pages long. The two are almost incomparable. I pretty much have to separate them in my mind and judge them each on their own merit. Read the book. It's awesome.
Totes one of my favorite subjects here, as you can tell.
Alan Avatar isn't based off of Pocahontas
ReplyDeleteI was told its based off of Fern Gully
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccURwir7C_o
I was extremely angry when i watched the movie "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightening Thief" The books are basically kids books, but they had a kicking storyline. I watch the movie and it is the biggest P.O.S if have ever watched. I was pretty angry.
ReplyDeleteOne good book to movie adaptation that was pretty spot on was "The Watchmen" It was an awesome graphic novel and the movie was good too. Tim B
Nothing pisses me off more than shitty book to movie adaptations! I agree with the "Rats of Nymph"