What's the worst change made in a movie adaptation of a book?
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Most of David Lynch's Dune.
From what I remember, 1984's Dune is basically the book condensed down into the highlights. If you've read the book, fine but otherwise, it must be quite confusing.
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I wouldn't call it a bad change, quite the opposite but when I read Fight Club, I was amazed how faithful the film was to the book. There are just two major changes I can remember.
In the book, Tyler Durden meets the narrator on a (nude?) beach where Tyler is erecting driftwood into the sand so that the shadow looks like a hand. (It's been a very long time since I read it, I think that's right.)
Secondly, the narrator struggles all through the story to remember the correct formula for the home made explosive. If he doesn't know, then Tyler doesn't know. Which means the explosives at the end don't go off. The buildings stay standing.
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From what I remember, 1984's Dune is basically the book condensed down into the highlights. If you've read the book, fine but otherwise, it must be quite confusing.
1984 Dune is a very mixed bag despite the pedigree of the folks making it
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After reading American Psycho, having first seen the movie, I was retroactively disappointed that they did not have every character dress like literal clowns that all looked identical, the way the book exaggerates.
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1984 Dune is a very mixed bag despite the pedigree of the folks making it
It's still my favorite version. Though, I still wonder if Jowarsky's Dune would have been better.
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Seek the truth, always.
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Most of David Lynch's Dune.
I'd say Denis' is waaaaaaay worse, they ruined Chani and added some nonsense subplot in part two as well... it's just prettier.
I loved Arrival though, and I do feel like most disruptive changes in his Dunes were studio notes because it would be more relatable to "modern audiences".
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Seek the truth, always.
wrote last edited by [email protected]They might not qualify as "crimes against mankind", but they definitely felt like it.
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I'd say Denis' is waaaaaaay worse, they ruined Chani and added some nonsense subplot in part two as well... it's just prettier.
I loved Arrival though, and I do feel like most disruptive changes in his Dunes were studio notes because it would be more relatable to "modern audiences".
Denis’s is great.
How do you feel that they ruined Chani?
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The Dark Tower by Stephen King. It was the book in name alone.
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After reading American Psycho, having first seen the movie, I was retroactively disappointed that they did not have every character dress like literal clowns that all looked identical, the way the book exaggerates.
I'm a little surprised at that response because American Psycho is one of the most true to the source material movies I've ever seen. Whole passages were lifted and turned directly into dialog. Sure all of those white men were supposed to be corporate clones in the books but in a movie characters have to be visually distinct that's just the nature of the mediums
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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.
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Denis’s is great.
How do you feel that they ruined Chani?
If anything he made Chani less of rug to be walked all over and gave her a personality outside of "wife to the messiah". If you were going to bitch about anyone in the Dune movies I'd think it'd be The Lady Jessica because she is an entirely different character in the movies. I don't think that's a criticism because she serves the plot well, but that one is a more grounded argument
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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.
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Denis’s is great.
How do you feel that they ruined Chani?
wrote last edited by [email protected]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.
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Not a movie, but everything about the wheel of time show was a travesty.
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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.
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EVERY SINGLE CHOICE made in Ready Player One. What a disappointment.
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They might not qualify as "crimes against mankind", but they definitely felt like it.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Seek the truth, always.
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It's still my favorite version. Though, I still wonder if Jowarsky's Dune would have been better.
Based on his comics I'm going to say it would be a classic, but mostly in a "can't believe they filmed that" sense.
