What are, in your opinion, the best and worse movie adaptation from books? Eragon (2006) was pretty bad. I never read the Percy Jackson series, but when my friend (a huge fan of the series) and I went to see the first movie in theaters she practically left crying. Pride & Prejudice (2005) is one of my favorite adaptations. Of Mice and Men (1992) was pretty good as well.
The Golden Compass was bad. Jack Reacher wasn't poorly done, but the casting of Reacher sucked. I, Robot was terrible. I agree that Of Mice and Men was well done. Despite departures from the original work, I think the Lord of the Rings trilogy was well done. The old black and white of All Quiet on the Western Front was a good one as well.
Hugo (2011) is one of those very, very rare movie > book movies. Its an absolue stunner in 3d for everyone who still has an inner child. Oliver Twist (2005 -Polanski) is a good adaption. It cuts some of the excess from the book and tightens the plot. Most of all however I like this oliver twist the best out of all versions (including series, and yes I have actually watched all adaptations). Why? Because it s the darkest, gritiest version. It doesn't sugar coat anything, something that can not be said of the highly popular musical version. Eragon is probably the worst that I, personally have seen. One shot in the extended edition is a shot from the standard edition but flipped horizontally. Its greedy, money hungry hollywood at its best with complete and utter disregard for the source material.
I've always respected the movie adaptation of Misery, I actually think it's better than the novel. And the 1984 adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four staring John Hurt. Those two come readily to mind right now anyway.
In my opinion, the best movie adaptation of a pretty bad book was Last of the Mohicans. Totally transformed the tale and made it believable, as well as putting it firmly in time and place. One of my favourite movies. I really disliked the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice with the coltish Kiera Knightly leaping all over the place, but I LOVED the TV adaptation starring the dignified Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. So true to the spirit of book it actually enhanced it, upon a second reading!
I believe Bladerunner, The Shawshank Redemption, A Clockwork Orange, and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest are the only four films I have seen that surpassed their literary source. Even the often cited examples of Gone with the Wind and The Godfather are inferior to the books, although they're still excellent movies.
I've not seen Jack Reacher yet, but I totally agree with you, the casting of Reacher sucked big time. Golden Compass indeed was terrible. I'm rereading Northern Lights now, the original title of the book - I hate that they changed the title to something so cliche. For myself, I liked I Am Legend, though the book was still much better. Perfume wasn't a bad attempt, but again, the book far surpassed it. I've never read LOTR but I adored the films. Hunger Games was BAD man - the cast for Peeta and Gale were both abysmal, though I did love Jennifer Lawrence. It was just so cheap.
Which adaptation are we talking about here? The first one was The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price. I watched it, and it kind of sucked. Price was the only positive. Then there was Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston. Haven't seen it. Lastly, there is I am Legend (2007) with Will Smith. Despite a promising beginning, it turned out to be a piece of shit. I haven't read Matheson's short story, but I imagine it's far superior to either the Price or Smith vehicles.
The original is a novella, not a short story, and of all these adaptations Omega Man is said to be the most accurate the the source material. The original novella/short novel is a huge amount of fun, and even has the balls to make the odd light-hearted joke about itself. I recommend a reading. I agree about LOTR, as much as I liked the books (my childhood wouldn't have been the same without them) I'm of the opinion that the films are actually something of an improvement on the books in some areas. At least they didn't add that Tom Bombadil thing, that bit in the novels was pointless. And the films made the characters much more complex in some areas too, especally Boromir who in the novels was just so boring.
The Talented Mr. Ripley was much better than the book. In the book, Dickie Greenleaf and Meredith Logue were as dull as dishwater. They were written more as aristocratically jaded with their own lives, and frankly they were really dumb. It was difficult to give credence to the glamour they cast over Tom Ripley. The film did a much better job of making their lives enviable and supporting Tom Ripley's motives.
John Dies at The End while different from book was really fun to watch, good low budget movie. Its on netflix if you wish to watch it.
Even though it got mixed reviews, I thought The Road was good. And of course, The Godfather is amazing. I still have to read that book to see how it compares to the film.
The Road! I forgot about that. I loved the novel and the film, and the film is so faithful. Amazing work.
I thought it was terrific. It did a handsome job of capturing the strangely muffled, numb, separated feeling that the book used to such great effect.
I've heard people say this, and that they found the story lacking because it was never made clear what caused the world to be the way it is. In fact, that's the one thing I would have done differently if I had made the film, not given those subtle hints the movie gives. I liked the fact that the book never told you anything, the cause of the apocalypse wasn't what was important anyway. If anything I'd say the movie is underrated, because most people who saw it just said it was depressing and that's it.
I though of another one. I can barely believe I actually forgot to mention it since it is my #1 movie out of everything I have seen. Equilibrium. There is plenty in this story that can be picked upon. It's not perfect, but still I like it. Some of the action scenes are ridicolous (especially the amount of smoke that puffs out of every killed soldier), yet I still like it. I like it because the story is quite original and because the movie, to me, had deeper meaning. It felt like a B version of The Matrix yet I still like it better than The Matrix. I am not sure if I can pinpoint why. If anything, that movie illustrates that a good plot can do alot of heavy lifting. I mean the actors were good, but not great, same goes for the set and cinematography. perhaps I am more in love with the message of the movie than the actual movie itself, or perhaps it has that underdog feel to it, I get the sense that whoever wrote this story was writing from the heart...
To my surprise, I enjoyed the film of Life Of Pi more that the book. It was very visual, very absorbing in a way that the book wasn't quite. The Golden Compass greatly disappointed me too.
I haven't read Battlefield Earth, but that movie was pretty bad! As for my best and worst, I'd have to say that the Eragon and Percy Jackson movie adaptations sucked. Both movies stand on their own and are fun, but after reading the books, I wish they would have kept closer to the stories (Not that I found Eragon to be the best book either). Seriously, though, they could have kept to the book in the Percy Jackson movie! It kind of ticks me off that they wasted so much potential! I am interested in that Seventh Son movie coming out, based on The Last Apprentice. It looks to follow the trend above, but it could be a decent sword and sorcery flick in its own right.
Despite the later bizarre behavior of L Ron Hubbard, in his earlier days he was a prolific scifi writer. "Battlefield Earth" is one of the best scifi epics ever.
I just saw Life of Pi, and thought that it was amazingly well done, and faithful too the book. Loved them both. Also, absolute agreement with whoever it was on the previous page who said the TV adaption of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth was well done. I really liked that, and there are so many awesome quotable lines too lol Loved the LoTR movies, and the books. Dune from the 80's was awful... I want that book to be given the LoTR treatment by someone... it could be such an amazing movie if done properly.
