Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

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Destinie
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Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Destinie »

1) What do you think is the best book to movie Translation?
2) What do you think is the worst?
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1) It's hard to pick just one but I think that the Lost World: Jurassic Park (and also the first) are better than the books. (GASP!) Aside from all the scientific inaccuracies, I found the movies far more enjoyable than the books. I won't go into detail, but I love how in the Lost World, Ian Malcom played a much more hero-like role versus in the book, he was sedated 99% of the time. "Omg a dinosaur!" *sedate* *passes out for 200 pages*

2) The worst? Ah, too many. For me, it's Studio Ghibli's version of Earthsea. I had waited for ages to see this movie and I was so disappointed. I think I was literally yelling at the television "That's so wrooong!" I think it had more of an emotional impact because I was really looking forward to seeing it and I love Studio Ghibli. Just sad that Miyazaki had lost interest in it when LeGuin said that he could make the film. TT_TT
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Masao »

omg I totally agree with Earthsea. I think the biggest issue for me was that the movie did not really have a plot or direction, and threw a bunch of scenes together.

for me:

1) My personal favorite is the first Hunger Games movie, since to me, it kept the really key essence of the story, and the parts that were changed were minor. I just really liked how it kept the heart of the story.

2) This is actually not a big deal, but I was personally pretty annoyed with the adaption of Never Let Me Go. Most of it was good, but the movie cut out the two really important scenes. It removed the part where we find out about why the book/movie is called "Never Let Me Go," and why Madam cried when she saw Kathy dancing to the song. The other point is the allusions to the place where all lost things go. The film never mentions it until the end, where it just throws it at you, without explaining the significance to the characters. But mostly I'm annoyed with leaving out the scene where Kathy dances to that song, and later when it was explained, because that was essentially the key moment in the entire story (besides the "truth" reveal).
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Emma
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Emma »

1) There's a few I could say for this, (Fight Club, Atonement, The Shining) but I'm going to go with the Shawshank Redemption as my favourite. I love that movie and the book SO MUCH and the movie is so stunning in everyway. (I also agree on Jurassic Park.)

2) THE GOLDEN COMPASS. UGH. I actually saw that movie before reading the His Dark Materials trilogy, and I only finally read them because so many of my friends told me to completely ignore that terrible film and give them a try. And I'm glad I did, because I loved the book so much. Everything amazing and wonderful in the book was just completely removed for the film, and it made NO SENSE.

And also I'm going to give a worthy mention for Eragon. They somehow managed to make a completely awful book into an even worse movie. Congratulations on that amazing feat, I guess? I went to see it because Jeremy Irons was in it, and not even he could save that hot mess. No matter how much I thought that book sucked, I felt bad for the author, because no one deserves to have that done to their work.
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Destinie
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Destinie »

@Masao I have yet to read or see Hunger Games. I heard all sorts of wonderful things about it!

@Emma !! I haven't read Eragon but the movie was awful! I love talking dragons and was excited to see a dragon movie, but it was just...bad. It was pretty much Star Wars with a talking dragon. The actors didn't even look like they were into it.
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Puppeteer »

1) The Lord of the Rings trilogy is pretty fabulous, I would say. Even though I haven't read much of it, I think the films did a great job of preserving the whole idea of the world it's set in, and everything looked stunning. I heard from someone who'd read the books a few times that they felt the writing condensed the story very well considering the run times.

2) Dorian Gray was pretty bad, as I recall. They made it a bit more sexual than I thought it needed to be, and the random addition of a love interest took away from the more important interactions that occurred in the book.
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Ava »

Good question. I don't think that I have read/watched enough adaptations to count these as best or worst, but there were some that captured my attention, for better or for worse.

1) LOTR. My ex-boyfriend read alllllll the Tolkien books and he was amazed that the movies were able to create so much action and excitement when the books were so dense in detailed description of the world. The movie writers were able to translate all that detail into artistic direction and extract the plot points that translate well to cinema. I know a few characters were altered, but for the most part, it was good.

2) I am Legend. The big twist at the end of the book was a significant part of the story, and important to the thoughtful message of the book. When the movie starring Will Smith removed that part, or made it less prominent, it made the story into an ordinary, generic zombie/vampire flick.
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Crystal »

Hmm, let's see...

1) What do you think is the best book to movie Translation?
I'm mixed with The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia. They both made things more interesting and easier to understand (especially The Lord of the Rings!). The Glass Menagerie was also pretty awesome.

2) What do you think is the worst?
This one is tough. I'm sure there is one but I really can't think of it right now. *fail*
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Destinie
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Destinie »

Ava wrote:Good question. I don't think that I have read/watched enough adaptations to count these as best or worst, but there were some that captured my attention, for better or for worse.

1) LOTR. My ex-boyfriend read alllllll the Tolkien books and he was amazed that the movies were able to create so much action and excitement when the books were so dense in detailed description of the world. The movie writers were able to translate all that detail into artistic direction and extract the plot points that translate well to cinema. I know a few characters were altered, but for the most part, it was good.

2) I am Legend. The big twist at the end of the book was a significant part of the story, and important to the thoughtful message of the book. When the movie starring Will Smith removed that part, or made it less prominent, it made the story into an ordinary, generic zombie/vampire flick.
Have you seen the "Original" movie version of "I am Legend"? It's called Omega Man and it stars Charleton Heston. It's vastly different but I'd recommend watching it for fun if you haven't seen it. Seeing both of these versions, it really makes me curious what the actual book is like, so I am going to read it at some point!
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Ava »

I haven't watched that yet, Destinie, but the whole spin on it sounds interesting! And I do enjoy those really old movies.
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Re: Awful (or Good!) Book to Movie translations

Post by Mikari »

I listened to the I am Legend book and it was vastly different. I like the ending of the book better, though I can't say I would want it for the movie because really it wouldn't fit at all. However, I was much more entertained with the movie, visuals+audio can't compete with audio alone so I enjoyed the movie more (the one with Will Smith) regardless of the plot difference. In terms of plot alone though, without comparing the media, they both stand on their own, they're too different to really be compared as version of the same thing. Similar concepts yet, but different stories. If I had to pick, judging by plot alone, despite it's sucky anti-climatic ending, I'll go with the movie's more horror-like concept, though I did enjoy the book's take on explaining vampire legends.
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