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Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations
I was a tad disappointed in the Cloud Atlas adaptation.Just a little. I don't know if they could have just followed the same timeline as in the book instead of a parallel storytelling, but that's just me.
The adaptation of Brian Selznick's The Invention of Hugo Cabret was wonderful. :)
Monique: I was a little too attached with Cloud Atlas the book that I wasn't completely able to separate that from the movie. ^^ So yeah, I sorta agree with you there.I haven't watched Hugo Cabret yet! But I want to read the book first.
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Ever since Harry Potter 3, I've learned to separate the book from the movie, so I hardly have high expectations for book to movie adaptations. I guess it depends on how much I loved the book and how much they changed in the story for the movie.
Best adaptations:
* Flipped -- most faithful to the story, imho.
* The Perks of Being a Wallflower
* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
* The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Not exactly the worst, but could've been better:
* Cloud Atlas
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (and this book was my favorite!)
I'm pretty sure there's more, but I'll get back to that. I'm going to go out and vote muna. :D
Best Adaptations: -Holes
-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
-Pride and Prejudice
Movie Adaptations I didn't like:
-A Series of Unfortunate Events
-Inkheart
-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Dawn Treader
-Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
@Tina, but didn't they change the time setting of Flipped? Haven't read the book yet but I heard it was set during mid 2000's. I could be wrong though.
I dont like watching movies, so i have limited book to movie comparision, but the worst...Bourne Identity= The story line was WAY off track!!! Serious man!!! I was so pissed with the Whole Threadstone thing, and Carlos. That i lost intrest with the rest of the movie series.
Harry Potter 1-it was, i think i can say it was more like an experiment on how they should make this magnificent book into a movie, hence the way it was made.
so far that are like the movies that i have watched that i can call worst...
with Twilight, the movie gave life to the book... (view spoiler)...
then there are books that i havent read but watch the movies, like:
Time to Kill= John Grishiam
Naria: The Lion, The witch and the wardrobe
Walk to remember
The Devil wears Prada
The Devil's Advocate
Forrest Gump
so far that is the list of the movies that i have watched that i did not know there was a book based on...
For me, the best book to movie adaptation is Conan The Barbarian (1982, the original starring Arnold Schwarzenegger). In this case, the movie was not a direct translation of the book but rather a re-imagining of the epic cycles told in the book which took to account the spirit of the book. Under the hands of director John Milius it became a meditation on power and civilization. Milius also rewrote the screenplay extensively. The score by Basil Poledouris is also notable. Very intelligently made. I highly recommend it to anyone. It really came out well. It was both a blockbuster and a classic of cinema, and became a template for succeeding films with mythic themes.One notable book to movie adaptation is The 13th Warrior which starred Antonio Banderas. It's a little-known film based on the novel The Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton (which is in turn based on Beowulf).
A third notable book to movie adaptation is True Grit, which starred Jeff Bridges.
To date, I hated the adaptation of Safe Haven. Actors were great, just that the adaptation didn't amuse me if I'm going to base all the thrill I got from the book.
One of the best that I watched recently would be Warm Bodies hehe! :)
I watched that movie M, I did not even know that there was a book about it..but yah.. i can second with M on that Movie. I think i was HS when i watched it, or Ele...Betamax pa yung medium of recording pa noon...
Another great book to movie adaptation is The Last of The Mohicans, starring Daniel Day Lewis (actually this is an adaptation of the play which was itself an adaptation of a movie which was an adaptation of the book - or something like that).
Yup, Conan the Barbarian is an old movie :-) If you guys ever see it on dvd, get it. It's definitely worth more than what you're paying for it. Get the first movie only. The second one (Conan The Destroyer) is bad.
The 1st one was really good, its Arnold :) and the way he presents himself with the chracter was really good. And to think i just watched that movie once, I can still remember the the clash of steel with the fight scene. Man that was epic...i cant remember watching the 2nd one, only the 1st.
Other favorite books turned into good movies: Winter's Bone, The Virgin Suicides, The Remains of the Day,and more recently, Life of Pi. :)Another less-than-fabulous adaptation: Anne Rice's The Queen of the Damned.
Interview With The Vampire was good, so the adaptation of Queen was a disappointment.
Cousin Tina: I could lend you Hugo Cabret if you want. ;)
Here's another great book to movie adaptation: Rashomon, by Kurosawa (in this case a short story turned to a movie).
I liked Rashomon! It's my first Kurosawa.I think The Da Vinci Code was great, just because it sort of pointed you on the things that you need to see when you get to go to Europe. (Like visiting the Louvre for instance)
Here's my list of awesome movies that were adaptations (this was the time preGoodreads, so I did not know they were from books when I saw them)
The color purple
Closer (well, this is a play)
Last of the Mohicans
Slumdog Millionaire
Kayla -- oh yeah, I think they did change that. But honestly, I didn't notice, because all the good parts of the story were there. Almost everything, I think! I remember watching the movie during Christmas and crying because of the scene with Juli's uncle. :)Oh, and Dawn Treader -- I liked the book, but I kind of like how they plotted the movie and rearranged everything to make it seem like the story was an adventure. The book felt like a series of shorter stories of their adventures in Narnia. I kind of liked how they (view spoiler)
Cousin - I won't say no. :D Been wanting to read that for a long time now. :)
Yeah, Ranee, I also liked The Color Purple. Wow, that was a great movie.
I'm going to stick only to books/movies that I have read/watched. So example, I wouldn't include LOTR 1 because I haven't seen the film yet and Silver Linings Playbook because I haven't read the book yet.So the honor goes to...
Atonement (Joe Wright) - unforgettable score (the typewriter sounds). The ending was tweaked, but I think it helped the movie to wring out the super powerful last few pages of the book that couldn't have translated well into film if it remained loyal.
Runners-up are the following (in random order):
Jane Eyre (Cary Fukunaga) - Michael Fassbender as Mr. Rochester? Sold!
A Single Man (Tom Ford) - I love the close-up shots. I would say again that Colin Firth should have won the Best Actor Oscar for this film
Capote (Bennett Miller) - I feel like I had actually talked to Capote after finishing the film.
The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola) - Great cinematography. I think it captured the middle-class America where the novel is set.
Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes) - I am very biased. Kate Winslet is an actress's actress although my favorite remains to be Keira Knightley. Heh.
And I'd like to promote Mysterious Skin (Gregg Araki). It's a book that I would most likely not read had I not seen the film first. I was only too glad to have found a stray copy at Book Sale years ago.
Some of the adaptations that I didn't really like but are not necessarily bad are the following:
Blindness (Fernando Mereilles) - it's just plain disaster. This proves that one shouldn't toy with the idea of filming anything written by Saramago. His works, I believe, are only meant to be seen in the mind's eye.
Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek) - the fact that I had to rewatch and to reconsider is a proof that it's not so great. It's not so much as the missing Norfolk scene as the seeming lack of cohesion. Great cast though.
The Road (John Hillcoat) - I just hated it. 'Nuff said.
From the Department of Self-Promotion: I wrote something about film adaptations last year, so if you are curious about my thoughts on its various aspects, click this.
All the Harry Potter movies starting from Book 3 sucked, in my opinion. I stopped watching after the third.
Best movie adaptations:- All Harry Potter movies (except Half-Blood Prince)
- Flipped ( Same as the book. It's oh-so good)
- A Walk to Remember
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower
- Breaking Dawn pt. 2
Worst movie adaptations:
- Confessions of a Shopaholic (some scenes came from book 2 & 3. I'm so disappointed)
- The Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.. so different
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (It's dull. I feel something is missing. I thought it's 3-D till the end, eh hindi naman. Sayang tuloy yung IMAX)
Flipped - VERY GOODDiary of a wimpy kid - VERY GOOD
hunger games - good
i am number four - good f you dont know the novel
Percy Jackson - goodn f you dont know the novel
like 1 author says ... hindi naman pweding kung ano nakasulat sa novel ganun narin gagawin sa movie kasi walang sense kung lahat ng bagay alam mo na there is no reason para i movie pa... (it goes like that XD nakalimutan ko lang kung sino)
... question po yung caster chronicle - beautiful creatures may balita ba na imomovie yung next o hindi na? XD
really disappointed in twilight- the book was AMAZING!, there was emotion ALL over the place, the waiting, the chase, the kisses where electrifying...compared to the book the movie was kinda...bland....
yung Warm Bodies..it was horrible.ang pangit talaga.nagmukhang boring.nawala ang humor ng book.i was so disappointed.im disappointed with Beautiful Creatures din.ang ganda ng production BUT di ko talaga type ang characters sa movie.malayung malayu!maraming iniba.sayang talaga...
Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief--NOT GOOD..parang di malaki abg budget ng movie.i hope this upcoming PJ would be great.base naman sa trailer,prang ginastosan na tlaga..
From recent memories - Jane Eyre (where Fassbender is Rochester). A Most Dangerous Method (have to reread; where Fassbender is Carl Jung):D
Worst:1. Never Let Me Go
2. The Shining
Good:
1. Warm Bodies
2. 10 Things I Hate About You
Absolutely adored the movie but haven't read the book:
1. The Green Mile
2. Struck by Lightning
3. The Count of Monte Cristo
3. The Shawshank Redemption
4. Fight Club
Best:
1. The Millenium Trilogy (SWEDISH version). Mara Rooney the best ever Lisbeth Salander. Having Asperger's syndrome rocks!
2. Game of Thrones - Beautiful casts plus the settings. Oh, the dragons...
3. Vampire Diaries - the book? gave up on page 17. Never even dared touching it again. But the series, I am hooked because Damon, Klaus and Tyler are sexy.
Haven't read a lot of books so I'm gonna stick with the ones I know lang. :-) Which are current books/movies. heheWorst:
1. Twilight series - Lot of good scenes in the book where snipped out of the movie so I didn't like it. And Breaking Dawn with that creepy CGI'd baby. ugh.
2. The Hunger Games - well, not really the worst but I just loved the book so much that I felt that the movie didn't level up to it. :-(
Good:
1. Warm Bodies (agree with Marian here)
2. Vampire Diaries - I gave up on reading the rest of the books because it's so darn confusing. but I like the TV series which was way different than the book. :-)
3. The Host - they did the best they could and it came out alright. i guess. hehe
4. Harry Potter series - despite some issues I had with the movies, they were collectively good. :-)
Didn't like the book, didn't like the movie:
1. Beautiful Creatures - just didn't work for me I guess.
Best:
1. Fight Club - the movie was waaaaaay better than the book, imo.
2. Pride and Prejudice (movie version) - Keira Knightley for me was perfect for Lizzie and that guy who played Darcy. hehe
3. I am Number Four - I liked it, too bad there wasn't a sequel to it.
The Godfather was great, one of the best movies out there, but in terms of movie adaptation the best I've seen is probably Age of Innocence. Daniel Day Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder all did a fine job with the characters they played. I also liked the 1992 Dracula, with Gary Oldman as Dracula.I haven't read "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "Fight Club", but both movies blew me off completely. The former was an intense spy thriller that made me think and rewatch some scenes, while the latter, like Nik said, was simply epic.
The Worst? Hmm... I have a strong feeling it'll be the upcoming "The Great Gatsby"
Best: LOTR movies, Pride and Prejudice, Time Traveller's Wife, Life of Pi, Matilda Could have been better: Water for Elephants, The Golden Compass.
Way different from the book but I did not mind: HP movies, Ella Enchanted.
Marian:(view spoiler)
Lucy:(view spoiler)
with time traveller's wife i have the book, i haven't seen the movie...is it really good?
The Ella Enchanted adaptation was awful! :-( I loved the book as a kid and I was extremely disappointed when I watched the movie.
Mary wrote: "The Ella Enchanted adaptation was awful! :-( I loved the book as a kid and I was extremely disappointed when I watched the movie."Agreed!
Tin wrote: "Best: LOTR movies, Pride and Prejudice, Time Traveller's Wife, Life of Pi, Matilda Could have been better: Water for Elephants, The Golden Compass.
Way different from the book but I did not mind..."
Oh shoot I forgot LOTR. :-(
Yeah, agree with you on THG, I'm gonna see Catching Fire when it comes out, I'm very interested in how they will do the arena. :-)
I think that usually the sets are absolutely spot on, it's just the story that steers away from the book.
And yeah, that CGI'd baby gave me the creeps.
Questian: I thought they did a good job translating it on screen, despite having to cut some events of course. As for the book, I thought it was good as well. I had a little difficulty getting into it at first but I soon got a hang of it. It's more on the romance side with the added complication of time travel.Mary and Kayla: Yes, the movie is miles miles different from the book. It definitely wasn't faithful to the original. It kind of took away much of the cleverness of the story. But I don't know, I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was fun. Campy but fun. Hee. :)
Great Adaptations (in my book):The Godfather – this is such a great classic.
The Last of the Mohicans – luscious Daniel Day-Lewis.
The Age of Innocence – major eye candy because of Martin Scorsese’s great attention to details.
The Wings of the Dove – Helen Bonham-Carter was great here.
Sense and Sensibility – starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet despite Emma being too old to play Elinor. This movie is memorable as Ang Lee’s big Hollywood break.
Emma – starring Gwyneth Paltrow (good adaptation but most faithful is the one featuring Romola Garai). I also loved the 90s reincarnation (Clueless).
Pride and Prejudice – I liked both the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle and Keira Knightley/Matthew Macfadyen versions although I did not quite like KK’s take on Lizzie in some scenes (bit hysterical). In terms of supporting cast, the KK/MM version got the Bennett family and the cousin right, and Judi Dench’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh was superb. Oh, and the musical score…and Permberley(view spoiler).
Persuasion – the Rupert Penry-Jones and Sally Hawkins version is so much better than the book because they made Anne Elliot run around Bath looking for Capt. Wentworth and they were able to break the entail (which cannot happen). Major kilig movie nevertheless.
And my runaway favorite:
North and South – starring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. So romantic it will make you swoon.
The bad ones I promptly forget.
Ycel wrote: "Great Adaptations (in my book):The Godfather – this is such a great classic.
The Last of the Mohicans – luscious Daniel Day-Lewis.
The Age of Innocence – major eye candy because of Martin Scorses..."
Yes yes yes!
I haven't read The Godfather but it's one of my favorite movies ever, so I'm quite excited to read the book.
On Sense and Sensibility, I couldn't quite believe it when I first saw Alan Rickman as Colonel Brandon. It was so different from what I'm used to (view spoiler). And I think this is also the film where Emma Thompson met her husband? He played Willoughby, I think. (view spoiler)
And I have to agree on P&P 2005's score. I've listened to it so many times! I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.
And on North and South... ^___^ (that's all)
ALEXA: Not used to seeing Alan Rickman in his natural hair color? I guess most HP fans have the same reaction :)Oh, yeah, Emma Thompson and Greg Wise (after that much publicized separation with Kenneth Branagh because of guess who? (view spoiler)).
Watching The Godfather is like reading the book :)
Whoever gets sick of P&P 2005 score is not normal.
Richard Armitage FTW! (view spoiler)
YCEL: The hair color I'm fine with, but the pained expressions and emo-ness, I'm definitely not used to! (view spoiler)I didn't know about HBC! They're all so interconnected, omg :))
Perfect! I was only able to read the first chapter so far, and I liked how it made me understand the context of the scenes more. There was more background which added depth to what I know from the movie. It's so cool! *spazz*
Amen.
No but (view spoiler)
Dahling, when I want to gawk at a young, luscious Al Pacino I watch The Godfather :)And reading the book will make you understand better when they say “go to the mattress.”
If I remember it right, that HBC business started when she and Branagh filmed Frankenstein. At nag-chismisan na. LOL!
Yes, The Godfather is a great book to movie adaptation to the extent that it stands as a classic on its own right.I have this love-hate relationship with the LOTR movies. I like the fact that through it many more new fans came to be acquainted with Tolkien and his Middle Earth mythology. I don't like the fact that the movie came off as shallow, with the major themes of the book totally lost. I especially dislike the loss of Tolkien's meditations on the immorality of domination, his views on power and how it traps us instead of us grasping it, on how the smallest and the insignificant can rise and often be the undoing of the great, on the importance of life and forgiveness, healing and restoration, and most importantly the action of grace from above in the shaping of destinies, etc.
@Raphael: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is another great book to movie adaptation! (Only I don't understand the reason for the change in the sexual orientation one of the major characters).
i watched The Host few hours ago,and i like it. sa book kc sobrang slow..as in,doubke slow kesa sa Twilight. but the movie was wonderful.kuhang kuha nila ang essence ng story.*sigh*
Dear John. Dear John is my favorite book ever. The movie was very much disappointing.
@Mark, what do you mean by sexual orientation? I haven't read the book, but to my understanding of the movie, Smiley's right-hand man was gay, or was he? Anyway, I liked the movie so much that I went on ahead and ordered one of its sequels, "Smiley's People"
BESTNarnia
The Host
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Hunger Games
Breaking Dawn Pt. 2
Time Traveller's Wife
The Lovely Bones
Harry Potter
Good
Spiderwick Chronicles
Warm Bodies
Worst
Beautiful Creatures
Lightning Thief
Twilight
Best movie adaptionShutter Island
Godfather ( <----- The Bomb )
Stand by me
Shawshank Redemption (<------ Bigger bomb than ^ )
The Blind Side
Schindlers List ( Depressing as hell )
Hannibal, Red Dragon , Silence of the Lambs
( Although Hannibal, Red Dragon and SotL were horribly written, the movie adaptions of the 3 were pretty awesome )
Forrest Gump
Worst
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
( Why is Annabeth not blonde ?! )
☼~Marian~☼ wrote: "Worst:2. The Shining
Absolutely adored the movie but haven't read the book:
1. The Green Mile
Whaaaaat?! The Shining was not bad. It was pretty good actually.
And Marian.. Please,please,PLEASE read the Green Mile. It will make you feel happy, depressed and angry at the same time. Trust me.
The Filipino Group
Books mentioned in this topic
Twilight (other topics)The Lovely Bones (other topics)
The Host (other topics)
It (other topics)
Vampire Academy (other topics)
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What's the best and/or worst book to movie adaptations you have watched? What makes them the best/worst? Did they stray away from the book too much? Would you rather have the movie be COMPLETELY faithful to the book or is it okay if the producers/directors play with it and change the story just a little bit?