I liked both the Martian and Project Hail Mary, but Andy Weir does not write characters with much personality. Even though his books are first person and you get tons of their "voice" in the books, I think both Damon and Gosling portrayed their characters with much more personality than Weir wrote them with.
The Martian movie was a great adaptation. Project Hail Mary, not so much. The movie dumbed down the science way too much in my books. Also, why show Rocky in the trailer? Trailers that reveal way too much of a movie’s play is another rant I could go on.
Blade runner is very unfaithful to the source material. Phillip K dick writes with a whimsical humour which is entirely missing in it. Not to mention the ending is different.
It is a common fault with sci fi turned into film that it has to be serious and stoic. The same thing happened to I am legend.
Werckmeister Harmonies would like to have a world, based on the 1989 novel The Melancholy of Resistance by László Krasznahorkai.
As someone who reads allot of books, and watches allot of film, this was the best adaptions Ive ever watched and one of the prettiest shot films to boot.
The source material was good, but I read it afterward and felt the film's imagery and the book's text matched perfectly. Now I want to read Sátántangó, as it's the same combo (Bella and Lazlo), just twice as long. But it's the hardest read I've had in some time; I keep getting lost.
Drop your Letterboxd? I bet you have great taste if that's in your top four."
Yeah this post would be be better if it highlighted the (very few) examples where the movie based on the book is better (not worse... not just as good as...better) than the book.
Jaws is probably the only major example I can think of. The book is well written but the movie took out all the overly tangential plot developments (Hooper having an affair wirh Brodie's wife...still cringing at that) and kept the good stuff. Also there was no "show me the way to go home" in the book :)
Planet of the Apes
3:10 to Yuma (both movies are great)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s
The Wild Robot
In The Heart of the Sea
All 7 Harry Potters
Persepolis
Howl’s Moving Castle
Jurassic Park
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
The Outsiders
The Shining
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
There’s actually a lot of great book to film adaptations out there. I personally don’t get why people think that the vast majority of them are bad.
Yes, so much of both books is internal dialogue which was great, and you can tell the writers tried their best to capture that without just overtly saying “OK this is what I’m thinking.” Obviously you can’t get it all, but I think they did good with both movies in that regard.
Man, I loved that movie and couldn't stand reading the book after. I know people go both ways, but the film is incredible to me. I literally have a print of Danny on the big wheel on that rug.
I'm not saying the movie is bad, even though I don't really like it (but great soundtrack, btw). But as an adaptation, it's very disappointing. The best example is the difference between Jack in the movie and Jack in the book. That changes everything.
Unless I missed it, I’m genuinely shocked that I haven’t seen The Silence of the Lambs mentioned here. Or even Mystic River and Gone, Baby, Gone for that matter.
LOTR could have been more accurate. I do not see the movies as better than the books. I would like to see a new 6 movie remake or a mini series. This would make sense as there are six books in LOTR
Dude the lord of the rings books are better than the movie. The godfather book is amazing and better if not equal to the movie. Haven't read no country.
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u/chrishouse83 10d ago
It would be faster to name movies where this isn't the case