Starship troopers. I say this not because the movie is bad (it’s not, I think it’s exactly what it meant to be and did it well), but that the movie and the book are thematically opposites. The book is very pro military authoritarian. The movie is a satire of that.
Doesn’t that make it the BEST bastardization of the book then? :)
haha, yes, in some sense :D
Heinlein also claimed the book its “swiftian in intent” its just done dry. And probably wouldnt have been adapted well to tv.
That being said in the book it was clear carmencita was way out of jhonys league and he was very aware of that. While other heinlenian heroes are generally horny.
Another difference from the heinlenian hero is that jhony is not very smart. He lacks agency and any positive agenda. He just stumbles around.
‘Johnny lacks agency.’ Well, he was a brand new high school grad who thought owning an Olympic size pool was normal. He joins up because his buddy was going in, and then is too proud to quit.
Exactly. He just goes with the flow. No soul of his own. Just another cog in a fascist machine.
This is even more notisable when you compare him with other heninlein protagonists who are also teenagers and join the army or simmilar institutions. They have their own agendas and goals.
The Hobbit. Probably not the worst movies with not the worst bastardisation (that’d be The Dark Tower for me), but I simply can’t wrap my mind around the overbloated monstrosity that the Hobbit TRILOGY is. Like why would anyone do this, it felt like it’s in the bag, they got Peter Jackson, they already made LotR to great success, why do we suddenly need wacky wheels with cartoon CG goblins in 48 FPS for some reason… It doesn’t even match neither the tone of the book nor the tone of LotR movies.
The hobbit movies should have fleshed out the dwarf characters better with all that extra time, give each of them a substory spread out over the trilogy so they would be more memorable. They did that with only one of the dwarves and it’s a silly love triangle that barely goes into the character of said dwarf. With the movie we got, ask any average person directly after seeing the movies to name the dwarves, i bet hardly anyone can.
Not only does the love triangle not make sense, but it really only serves to erode the significance of friendship of Legolas and Gimli. They were supposed to be first friendship between an Elf and dwarf in a long time
Grumpy, Doc, Sneezy, I definitely forget the rest though.
IIRC the crushing of the Actors Union in NZ is what sidelined the dwarves.
The 1970s animated The Hobbit is a good adaptation, also the Tolkien Supercut version of the live action movie is watchable.
They lost me at what they did to my boy Radagast.
Warner Bros didn’t want to make the Hobbit. They wanted to make another Lord of the Rings movie, and had to use the Hobbit for it. The Hobbit is very much NOT a Lord of the Rings story, despite the shared setting. Square book, round movie.
Also, they knew there wasn’t enough content, but Warner Bros had to split the profits of the first movie five ways. They didn’t have to do that for the second movie, and then they added a third to squeeze out even more.
See, I think the high frame rate would look great if what you were looking at was real. But what you’re looking at is a room of actors in nylon beards and Martin Freeman in rubber feet.
And where did the spare barrel come from?
Spare barrel? Bear in mind I have only actually seen the first of the Hobbit trilogy, and then later I watched the Tolkien Supercut, that cut out anything not at least alluded to in the book.
I think it’s in the second one. It’s hard to be sure when you’re vaguely remembering a 300 page children’s book inexplicably squeezed into three movies.
It’s the much hated GoPro barrel ride bit. All the dwarves have a barrel, there are no spares, Tim from The Office has to hang onto the side of one. The fat dwarf breaks his, and then after bouncing around like prequel Yoda, jumps into a spare that comes from nowhere.
I would think the version you saw just shows them all going into the water and coming out at the other end. It’s been a long time since I read it (close to 30 years), but I don’t remember any massive river battle going on.
Have you seen the early 90s Finnish Hobbit?
Well of course I have! I put it on my Plex server, lol.
Eragon. They really fucked up so much about the book!
I never read the book but I agree the movie was absolute rubbish
I loved that book growing up and was so excited when the movie was coming out (on my birthday!)
To this day, that movie is the only one I legitimately walked out of. It was such a terrible adaptation.
“I Am Legend” has been made into 3 or more movies, none of which have anything like the book’s ending.
The Last Man on Earth (1964) is dull and misses the point almost entirely, but almost manages the title line. Not quite.
The Omega Man (1971) is exciting and misses the point even further.
I Am Legend (2007) almost gets it. The vampires are competent. Will Smith’s smarter than Neville of the book, but crazier. But then both endings fail to treat the vampires as a society.
The original cut of the 2007 ended with Will Smith’s character realizing he had been abducting and murdering conscious, aware creatures. The ending has the vampires doing a rescue mission, visibly terrified of Smith, and then he allows the one he abducted to rejoin her society.
Test audiences apparently didn’t like it or didn’t understand it
Test audiences apparently didn’t like it or didn’t understand it
I read the book on a whim in high school. I think it was one of those random Barnes and Nobles finds. The ending was an amazing horror twist, with Neville realizing he’s the monster and the audience realizing that they’ve been rooting for the villain The whole time, and the acceptance of the transition to the new society.
The only adaptation I’ve seen was the Will Smith movie which was generic zombie movie nonsense.
Were the zombies not killing any human in sight in the book?
They weren’t zombies, they were vampires in the book. Like talking, civilized people.
It’s funny the irony of I Am Legend, it is an allegory to an older society having to make way to a newer one, and somehow every time that’s the story they can’t do.
the 1964 one at least has vincent price in it
“The NeverEnding Story” should never have been made into a movie. It’s almost ironic. Every time a child watches the movie instead of reading the book, that’s an opportunity lost.
I’m a huge reader, massive… like, I spent up until I was about 29, 30 or so going to the library every week or two and getting 10 books out every time (That was the most you could get). I’d have read them all, and be champing at the bit to go back well within the week… it was a regular trip for us to go.
I’ve never actually read the Never Ending Story, and I loved the movie… one of my favourite childhood movies.
Going to have to give it a read…
You should definitely read it but I think the great thing about the book is that it can turn a kid into a reader. When they’ve watched the movie already I think some of the magic is gone and it’s not as impactful.
YES! I read the book a long time before I saw the film and was so disappointed when I finally got around to watching it. And then I know people who read the book years after seeing the film and didn’t like it, because it was so different to what they were expecting. And that’s such a shame, because the film just doesn’t have the same depth to it.
No one appears to have yet mentioned Forrest Gump. In the book he was a chess grandmaster who wrestled professionally and was an astronaut. Also, the book sucks.
I haven’t watched or read it. Are you saying the movie is better than the book in spite of bastardizing it?
Yip. Also, they were very slightly totally different.
I think the book was written to be satire and the movie is, uh, comedic but in a much less pointed way
Liberalism and Great Man Theory, name a more iconic pair.
The many adaptations of the Iliad, none of them is gay enough.
somewhere in the distance, the Blue Oyster Salad Bar music starts playing
The Gunslinger. It was supposed to be more of a continuation of the books but it just sucked all around.
As a very long time reader of the Dark Tower series, I was super excited to see what they would do with it. I couldn’t watch more than 5 minutes before I had to shut it off, it was just so fucking BAD.
That was probably a good idea. I made it about 30 minutes in. The movie kept moving further and further away from the books. And it was in the weirdest ways. I’m not sure what all it showed in the first 5 minutes, but Randal suddenly has a group of people to help him, and they’re using sifi technology with computers to open portals instead of the doors. I get things will always change from book to movie. I go in expecting it. And usually it’s not a huge deal. But I just don’t get the decisions they decided to make.
And to think I was so excited to see Elba play Roland. What a disappointment.
It wasn’t an adaptation of The Gunslinger
If TV shows count: Earthsea.
It was such a poor adaptation that Ursula Le Guin wrote an article denouncing it.
“I didn’t see why everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill.”
I fucking miss her, her death was a real loss to the world. I wish we could just keep some people forever.
Ohhhh… Pepperidge Farm remembers. I remember the family and I giving the series a try, and even without it being a bastardization it was a really shitty show.
Not a classic book, but Artemis Fowl. Disney managed to confuse fans of the books and newcomers to the series alike by adding a McGuffin that was unnecessary, bringing the antagonist from the second book into the movie on the first book, and mangling the relations between the two main protagonists beyond recognition.
I’ve been told that Artemis Fowl in the books is actually a nice and smart person. In the movie he comes across as an arrogant dick for a larger part.
Somewhere deep down I think I remember that book as great, the movie has to be horrible
Butler… is the comic relief.
“Do Androids Dream of Eletric Sheep”
You’ll probably recognize it as Blade Runner but the film took so much liberty the author allowed a good friend to write three sequels in order to harmonize the book with the movie.
Also “Starship Troopers”.
Haha I would put both of those at the top of my list of movies that were actually much better than the books.
Do Androids Dream of Eletric Sheep felt so flat to me, I think it probably didn’t age well. The animal obsession didn’t land for me, I guess it’s supposed to be an allegory for material obsession, since the animals are more for showing off than being actual pets, but it just seemed to slap you in the face with it like many of the very not subtle metaphors. The main character is also just dull as hell and walks straight into dangerous situations or traps without a second thought, but it always works out for him because plot armour and the androids either just comply for some reason or they’re so incompetent that it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t a fun book imo and it’s themes were so obvious that it didn’t “make you think”.
Starship Troopers (Book) was just hoorah military propaganda. The movie did such a good job of making fun of it and turning into a ridiculous over the top satire.
Electric Sheep is the first book I thought of when I read the thread title.
I’m pretty indifferent on Blade Runner. It’s got a great soundtrack and aesthetic, but as an adaptation of my favorite SF book of all time I can’t stand it.
Dune. The Wheel of Time series on Prime.
I both agree and disagree on Dune.
True, Lynch’s version did the book no justice. But, gosh, is a guilty-pleasure of a movie for me.
I’ll judge Jodorowsky’s version when it’s done.
Ok, you caused some cognitive dissonance with the callback to Jodorowsky and I thought I was in a parallel reality for a few seconds. Well done.
the recent dune film or the 80s one?
If we’re talking about the 80s one I couldn’t disagree more. It has little to do with the book but as its own thing it’s perfect.
Battle pugs are a huge plus in the Lynch Dune column
I haven’t seen the old one but I liked the new one.
The best one is the scyfi mini series. They have awsome sets and coustumes. The did change some things but not as much as the old one. The old one sucks in all aspects except their casting for paul is the best. The new one has by far the best casting(except gor paul) but some of the lines are delivered wierdly and the sets and the contrast of the colors is a bad choise.
The hobbit
Agreed, I watched 1 or maybe 2, lost all interest in more of that nonsense
It could have been one great movie, but they decided they needed a trilogy in order to replicate TLOTRs financial succes.
Why? tlor are three pretty thick Books, as opposed to the pamphlet that is the hobbit.
I, robot.
Imagine if they did an anthology series… /drooling
For now I’ve got Pluto to look forward to.
Pluto? I never finished reading the manga, but it was looking promising. Is there a movie made or coming up?
There’s a Netflix anime getting made!
Oh oh interesting interesting!
… should I finish reading it first…?
It’s a great story, but that’s up to you! I ended up reading scanlations of it years ago.
The witcher is pretty bad.
I would say its actively terrible I the worst kind of way: it has fuck all to do with the characters and the plot of the books
I gave up after the 2nd episode of the second season. It felt like the person running the show actually hated the books. It felt like sabotage.
