What book did Hollywood ruin for you?

Discussion in 'Discussion of Published Works' started by Normal, Feb 21, 2010.

  1. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    I saw the Eragon film, it put me off the book; but I did find the movie funny.

    ... not sure that was the intention though.
     
  2. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    Don't let it put you off the book. The movie was a joke in comparison to the book. Trust me it was almost painful to watch after reading the book. It was a wreck.
     
  3. Mantha Hendrix

    Mantha Hendrix New Member

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    The new batman game wasn't a movie to game adaption in the true sense of the phrase...
     
  4. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    ^ Are you talking about the Arkham game? Nah, looks too much like Lovecraft's Arkham for me to even think of playing that.

    Fair enough, I'm running out of books to read at the moment so I am looking for something new anyway.
     
  5. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    Good, I think you'll like it. What I enjoyed most about the books was how with each book you could see how he (the author) evolved as a writer.
     
  6. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    I hated the book, personally. I hated the film more, but that still didn't make the book anything more than an effective list of genre tropes, without attempt at originality.
     
  7. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    You know what? I think exactly the same way about most of the short stories in Stephen King's Everything's Eventual.
     
  8. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Haven't read them, Lemex, but I must say that Eragon is what I point to, when people ask me what's wrong with fantasy. It just seems like all aspects of it are lifted from other (better) fantasy works.
     
  9. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    Ah, I'll keep that in mind the next time I go book shopping.
     
  10. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    Honestly I wouldn't know. It's the only fantasy I've ever read. hehe
     
  11. Banzai

    Banzai One-time Mod, but on the road to recovery Contributor

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    Really? Well in that case, go and pick up a copy of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight. It's a bit old now, but no less brilliant :)

    EDIT: Speaking of, they keep threatening to make a film of that. Not sure if they ever will, though.
     
  12. Mantha Hendrix

    Mantha Hendrix New Member

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    I have to go off topic for the good of gaming... Arkham won game of the year, and it definitely deserves it.

    I was just saying that someone said it was a movie tie in. It isn't.

    Rent it out and judge for yourself.

    To return to form. The lovely bones, made it all a bit to cheesy for my tastes.
     
  13. Lemex

    Lemex That's Lord Lemex to you. Contributor

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    They have been threatening to make a movie of At the Mountains of Madness since 2003, not sure if they'll do that.

    Side note: Woop! Two Lovecraft references in two pages!
     
  14. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    What's it about exactly? Just wondering. What's funny is I probably never would have read Eragon myself except my mom read it to me in the hospital to help me get my mind on other things. (My eyesight was too blurry from all the pain medications to read that's why she read it.) Thankfully my eyesight is good again. :p
     
  15. mparker

    mparker New Member

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    the narnia movies. I'm stuck on why they skipped one and three. They are great books esp. for kids, and would've made good movies. Harry Potter 6, direct reason is on editing and direction though, just the fact that the entire movie was so dark you'd think the script writer(s) only worked at night, and you couldn't see what was going on.
     
  16. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    The Golden Compass.

    Chris Weitz shouldn't be allowed near the director's chair or the screenwriters notepad ever again :)
     
  17. CaKsTeR

    CaKsTeR New Member

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    The Golden Compass was a terrible movie. Shame too, since I really enjoyed the novel. They made the plot feel so flimsy, and a lot of the 'revelations' in the film made no sense at all.
     
  18. MissBelle

    MissBelle New Member

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    Midnight in the garden of good and evil.


    Loved the book. Nothing I loved about the book was in the movie. SO sad.
     
  19. MissBelle

    MissBelle New Member

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    Have you seen the BBC version of the Narnia movies. They are SO good, in my opinion. Low budget, but I watched them when I was a kid and Loved them.
     
  20. Uthis

    Uthis New Member

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    Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

    The movie was good in and of itself, but it was the classic case of the idiot director only reading the first book in the series. So they removed a) the main villain for the rest of the series b) multiple pivotal characters in the next few books c) changed personalities of some people so their character sucks d) took out most of the good scenes.

    All that would make for a good movie if you hadn't read the book... but of course they also got some of the actual greek mythology wrong.

    Overall, a bust of a movie that ruined a great series.
     
  21. Elgaisma

    Elgaisma Contributor Contributor

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    Walkabout but not sure it was Hollywood lol
     
  22. Videodrome

    Videodrome New Member

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    The worst recent one for me was Shooter. It was based on one of my favorite action thriller books Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter.

    Also after seeing the movies I read the Bourne Identity trilogy. I can't comprehend how those books were adapted.
     
  23. Aconite

    Aconite New Member

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    I am now imagining Videodrome: The Novel.

    I thought the Lord of the Rings movies were vastly inferior to the books, but the books are more a benchmark for me of the fantasy genre than sparkling writing (Tolkien was a great worldbuilder but the story is only serviceable at best.)

    Minority Report wasn't good. I'm not a fan of Tom Cruise to start with, but the book is leagues better (in contrast, the movie of A Scanner Darkly really worked, and I don't care for Keanu Reeves either!).

    Has the execrable Will Smith I, Robot been mentioned yet?

    There should be a special booby prize for the Scifi Channel (yes) adaptation of the Earthsea novels: They went wrong at casting (Ged is supposed to be Indian-looking, not a blond white boy, and it's a point of the books to mention this) and never looked back. Ursula K. LeGuin's website is chockful of rage at this.

    Getting out of fantasy/scifi (because it's so easy): Gettysburg wasn't half as good as the book (it was just all right as a film, and I love the book.) I like Johnny Depp lots and I thought the adaptation was stylish, but The Ninth Gate is not a good film (and yet Perez-Reverte's The Club Dumas is one hell of a fun read.)
     
  24. Robyn

    Robyn New Member

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    I KNOW! The movie was good... but I reaaaaaaalllly didn't like it because absolutely NOTHING was the same. I ranted on for an hour after watching the movie, stating everything that was different. The only similarities were the names.

    One thing that bothered me greatly was how the movie made it seem that finding the pearls was the quest, not finding the lightning bolt. I don't even think the director read the first book; probably just skimmed through it.

    Alrighty, that is all.:rolleyes:
     
  25. JamesL

    JamesL New Member

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    Alive by Piers Paul Read.

    Though the movie is pretty old (made sometime in the 90s i think), they really missed the essence of the story. They made some characters who, in the book, were more scared than others (and really can you blame them?) seem like complete cowards who were crying and complaining all the time. They also hardly recognized the cannibalism of the men except for maybe one or two scenes. I know it's grusome, but it's a huge part of the book and their survival story.

    They also made the whole ascension of the mountain in about 5 minutes of scenes. While reading it, I felt like i was on an epic journey of survival with these people. In the movie, it all happened so quick I didnt even realize what was going on.
     

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