What's the worst change made in a movie adaptation of a book?
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Oooo as someone who has seen the movie and never read the book, any sales pitch for me for the book?
The book is wonderfully written, and actually fairly insightful from a disaster preparedness and policy standpoint. It's been a while since a read it so forgive me if the details aren't exactly correct. Its written from the viewpoint of a journalist traveling the world post zombie apocalypse. He is collecting stories from survivors of various major events that happened during the zombie outbreak. Each chapter details a different event conveyed by a different witness, so it's not a cohesive single plot story. More like working notes of someone preparing to write a history of a major global disaster. It highlights some of the mistakes made and lessons learned as events unfolded.
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Zendaya just plays an immature, "rebel without a cause" New Yorker instead of Chani, a strong and intelligent Fremen young lady who falls in love with and follows her Muad'dib, not just because of his prophetic abilities but also/mostly because of his character. But, in the current Western cultural understanding, that just wouldn't fly as strong means selfish and reactive and intelligent means rebellious and lippy. She's awed by Paul, as would be anyone surrounding him (to Paul's chagrin when it changes those around him to more "robotic" beings as it does with Stilgar), but also understands him deeply and is his emotional pillar, while Paul's the pillar to his entire community. They just wanted a "girl boss" and that's what we had in Denis' Dunes.
Calling Zendaya’s Chani a girl boss New Yorker seems incredibly misogynistic to me.
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Calling Zendaya’s Chani a girl boss New Yorker seems incredibly misogynistic to me.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I don't understand what "woman hating subtext" you read from my comment but, if you read the books, it will just seem appropriate.
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I thought it was an entertaining movie, but I haven’t read the book. Ima go download it right now.
The movie isn’t very interesting, but it’s not outright bad - unless you were hoping for a faithful adaptation. The book has a MUCH more interesting storyline.
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I don't understand what "woman hating subtext" you read from my comment but, if you read the books, it will just seem appropriate.
I’ve read all of them after Foundation it’s my favorite science fiction series.
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Zendaya just plays an immature, "rebel without a cause" New Yorker instead of Chani, a strong and intelligent Fremen young lady who falls in love with and follows her Muad'dib, not just because of his prophetic abilities but also/mostly because of his character. But, in the current Western cultural understanding, that just wouldn't fly as strong means selfish and reactive and intelligent means rebellious and lippy. She's awed by Paul, as would be anyone surrounding him (to Paul's chagrin when it changes those around him to more "robotic" beings as it does with Stilgar), but also understands him deeply and is his emotional pillar, while Paul's the pillar to his entire community. They just wanted a "girl boss" and that's what we had in Denis' Dunes.
I get where you're coming from, and I do feel like Chani really suffered from the adaptation, but I felt like it was more due to screentime and not having internal thoughts than changes made. I felt her being skeptical at the beginning was both a great change to her character (it feels like she falls in love with the Muad'dib Paul becomes, not the Atreides he was) and a really good way to carry themes of anti-messianism into the movie where the book relied on philosophical asides. It also provides a natural foil to Stilgar's zeal and Jessica's manipulation, presenting Chani as more aligned with Paul himself.
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The Dark Tower. Good movie in its own right, especially if you like Idris Elba.
First, they took 8 Stephen King books, some of which were like 2" thick, and decided to turn it into a 90-minute PG-13 film. A single film.
Second, because the racist element was so offensive (a Black woman taken out of the 1970s, who has personally experienced racism toward her, is taken to a foreign world, an alternate reality, where she basically is led by an old white man (modeled after Clint Eastwood) and naturally she feels a certain type of way about that) they decided they were going to change it up. Make her white, and him Black. Hence casting Idris Elba as a guy based on Clint Eastwood. Then they dropped her character entirely. I will argue that Elba made a hell of a Gunslinger, but the reason they cast him was because they wanted to turn the whole racism plot on its head. For no good reason. It was fine in the books (this would be The Drawing of the Three, and The Waste Lands, the second and third books).
But for all that, it was an entertaining action flick with a bunch of Stephen King references. I quite like it. As a reader of the books and a fan of Stephen King, I shouldn't, but the movie itself was good.
Honestly that the movie exists at all is the worst change, though.
I only read the first three or four books, but the movie didn't include a single thing I remember from thee early books that I liked. No crab taking fingers, no giant robot bear, no talking train, or anything else. It seemed to me like they had some other script and slapped a Dark Tower veneer on it.
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I’ve read all of them after Foundation it’s my favorite science fiction series.
You're feigning ignorance then if you actually recall the books. Zendaya's/Denis' Chani and Herbert's Chani are like night and day. And, again, what exactly was 'misogynistic' about my comment? And do I have to start copypasting passages of Dune and Messiah and make a comparative analysis with Denis' Dune? It's past midnight over here, my guy.
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You're feigning ignorance then if you actually recall the books. Zendaya's/Denis' Chani and Herbert's Chani are like night and day. And, again, what exactly was 'misogynistic' about my comment? And do I have to start copypasting passages of Dune and Messiah and make a comparative analysis with Denis' Dune? It's past midnight over here, my guy.
Honestly it feels like you dislike the actor and are projecting it on to the character.
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I get where you're coming from, and I do feel like Chani really suffered from the adaptation, but I felt like it was more due to screentime and not having internal thoughts than changes made. I felt her being skeptical at the beginning was both a great change to her character (it feels like she falls in love with the Muad'dib Paul becomes, not the Atreides he was) and a really good way to carry themes of anti-messianism into the movie where the book relied on philosophical asides. It also provides a natural foil to Stilgar's zeal and Jessica's manipulation, presenting Chani as more aligned with Paul himself.
wrote last edited by [email protected]It was unnecessary and disruptive (and what was that "Chani is a leader of an internal rebellion in the Fremen" all about in Dune Part 2?!), Chani served her purpose in Dune like pretty much other characters did besides the protagonists Paul and Leto II, who simply take more of the stage because, as prophetic beings infused with semi-omniscient knowledge, have more depth to them. The rest are mostly just people, and we all know people, but Dune was never about the characters... and maybe that's why it cannot be adapted for the masses. I mean, even events like a jihad that kills billions and the death of Paul's first child (was this even in the movie?! But sludge covered Baron Harkonnen was front and center, lol, without even mentioning his pedophilia!) are just brushed off, written in some sentences tops. The meat and potatoes of Dune are the philosophical explorations, in particular "how would anyone handle excess knowledge?", and as such Chani played her role as much as Leto and Jessica did, you change the characters and you just muddle something clear. I didn't even mind when they genderswapped Paul's short-lived mentor in Arrakis, cause it really doesn't matter much, but they replaced Chani with just Zendaya. They also put way more action scenes in it but didn't show the very important dinner scene, didn't properly explain why it was important to have a "male Bene Gesserit" (again, modern sensibilities), didn't properly explain Paul's visions and left it very inconsistent/inconclusive, but these long (beautiful, certainly) shots with empty silences were there, because that's what matters in fricking DUNE...
For those who don't care about the depth of Dune and the points Herbert tried to make, the movies are lovely. And for the ones who do, we'll always have the books, so whatever, I guess. But I got my COVID shots quickly just to watch Dune Part One and I'm still a little bit salty, lol, that's all.
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Jurassic Park. The original was a horror/thriller that would have had to be unrated if they made it literally from the book. Instead, we got a PG-13 family film that really did not live up to the book.
In fact, it’s the first time that I read the book before seeing the movie, and I learned to never ever do that again.
Funny thing though, Jurassic Park is STILL wildly successful, and if it had followed the book, most people would have never heard of it today.
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Oooo as someone who has seen the movie and never read the book, any sales pitch for me for the book?
IIRC: The movie was written long before they slapped the title on it.
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Honestly it feels like you dislike the actor and are projecting it on to the character.
You're the king/queen of avoidance.
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Jurassic Park. The original was a horror/thriller that would have had to be unrated if they made it literally from the book. Instead, we got a PG-13 family film that really did not live up to the book.
In fact, it’s the first time that I read the book before seeing the movie, and I learned to never ever do that again.
to 4yo me, JP was a horror film. I mean, the kitchen sequence alone. And the run underground in the dark in search of the fuses, only to find a severed arm.
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Personally, I'm still irritated at the end of Hannibal (the 2001 movie). Spoilers for the end of the film and book ahead:
In the book, Clarice Starling has gone as far as she can in her FBI career. She became famous for solving big cases, moved up the corporate ladder, but that glass ceiling kept her from advancing. Too many misogynistic "good ol' boys" at the top, who not only prevent her from excelling in her career, but take every tiny mistake and blow it up into a potentially career-ending scenario.
Enter Hannibal Lecter; the suave and highly intelligent cannibal serial killer. He's outraged that Clarice's coworkers and bosses are actively objectifying her and ruining her career.
Long story short, at the end of the book, Hannibal rescues Clarice and gives her misogynistic boss an impromptu (and tasty!) lobotomy. Clarice ends up running away with Hannibal, because she realized he's the only person who respects her as an intelligent human being and not a piece of ass.
The movie chose to keep her loyal to the FBI and combative against Hannibal, even though the FBI actively tried to destroy her life. Hannibal escapes alone and the film just kind of ends. It was a complete non-ending.
The whole point of Silence of the Lambs and its sequel, Hannibal, was that Clarice was a woman trying to survive in a "man's job," yet proved she could belong - and excel - through her own skill and intellect. Silence of the Lambs did a pretty good job showing that on the big screen, but Hannibal didn't get the point of the story and decided the hero shouldn't end up with a cannibal, period. They treated him as more of an irredeemable monster.
It's kind of the "man vs. bear" meme, except replace the bear with a cannibal serial killer, and the girl still chose the cannibal as the safer choice to her co-workers.
FFS, my unread list is long enough. Now I gotta add this series too. Thanks op
(but actually, thank you, that sounds interesting)
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vaguely gestures at World War Z
Can you imagine a mockumentary with photos, reenactments, Redeker interview, military helicopters recording a supply drop following the redeker plan and thankful survivors, a historian explaining the Pakistan India war, live head cam footage of the Battle of Yonkers as that soldier retells his experince. It ends with some Drill Instructor explaining the box formation and taking your time with shots. Cuts to a drone going up and showing survivors in formation and hundreds of zombies in a large circle around them.
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Not a movie, but everything about the wheel of time show was a travesty.
Haaard disagree. The books are dated as hell, and they were doing interesting things with that series. tugs braid emphatically
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I was hoping for a faithful adaptation instead of just another zombie flick.
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The Dark Tower. Good movie in its own right, especially if you like Idris Elba.
First, they took 8 Stephen King books, some of which were like 2" thick, and decided to turn it into a 90-minute PG-13 film. A single film.
Second, because the racist element was so offensive (a Black woman taken out of the 1970s, who has personally experienced racism toward her, is taken to a foreign world, an alternate reality, where she basically is led by an old white man (modeled after Clint Eastwood) and naturally she feels a certain type of way about that) they decided they were going to change it up. Make her white, and him Black. Hence casting Idris Elba as a guy based on Clint Eastwood. Then they dropped her character entirely. I will argue that Elba made a hell of a Gunslinger, but the reason they cast him was because they wanted to turn the whole racism plot on its head. For no good reason. It was fine in the books (this would be The Drawing of the Three, and The Waste Lands, the second and third books).
But for all that, it was an entertaining action flick with a bunch of Stephen King references. I quite like it. As a reader of the books and a fan of Stephen King, I shouldn't, but the movie itself was good.
Honestly that the movie exists at all is the worst change, though.
Idris Elba was an unexpected choice, but I was all for it. Unfortunately, you’re right about the rest of the film. SO much wasted potential.
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EVERY SINGLE CHOICE made in Ready Player One. What a disappointment.
What a disappointment.
That's my thought on both the book and the movie. Perhaps its not the book's fault. There was so much hype surrounding it when it came out I thought it must be awesome. Instead I found the same simply story I'd read in a dozen other books, except this one drowning in a sea of 80s and 90s pop culture references. If it was a simply summer read without the hype I likely would have liked it for what it was.
I had similar disappointment when I finally read Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code". I read that same type of story a dozen times in other much better books but everyone was saying it was a groundbreaking book.
