What is your favorite and least favorite book-movie adaption?
Favorite- Holes. I love the book, and the movie keeps true to it so well. The acting was great, and the soundtrack was great. I love Kissin’ Kate and the song fit her so well for her scene.
Least Favorite- Ella Enchanted. Uh, REWROTE MUCH? The only thing that is the same is the names of the characters. Seriously. Her curse was changed (in the book, she can resist but gets nausea, headaches, etc., in the movie she automatically does it like shes in a trance ) and the entire plot was changed. Entirely.
my favourite would probably be harry potter- i loooooooooooooooooooooove those movies the only thing i don’t like about them is that they don’t put everything from the book in there. did you know that the fifth one in the series is the biggest book but it’s the shortest movie or so i’ve been told.
i do like charlie and the chocolate factory but i think that they changed too much in both of the movies. i haven’t actually seen eragon but i’ve herd it’s not much like the book.
The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson one) is up there with the best. Those movies blow my mind.
As for Harry Potter, I agree that they do cut a lot out, but they have to. What I wish they would have done was film everything possible, and then release special extended editions a la Lord of the Rings.
That’s not such a bad idea with the harry potter movies. you can just watch the deleted scenes on the dvd but there not all that good. Oh, and i never knew that hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy was a book I always thought that it was based on an old tv show
I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha a few weeks ago and loved it. Even if you only have a vague interest in Japanese culture, I recommend it. I then watched the movie on DVD and was a bit disappointed - not enough back story and explanation and the way the girl (I forget her name) was treated was toned down in the movie which I didn’t like. The accents were hard to understand at times, too. This could have been due to the fact that a couple of the actors were Taiwanese, which made them a bit unbelievable as being Japanese. It would have been better if the dialogue was completely Japanese with English subtitles but they didn’t do that because it wouldn’t have been marketable, even if that decision was detriment to the film (and book.) I’ve heard that’s the way it always is, with books being better than the film…
A couple of years ago I tried getting through 1984 (the novel) but just couldn’t do it, so I was pleased when I saw that the movie was on TV, but didn’t get a chance to watch it and it has never been on again and the channel has no plans to purchase and air the movie again either. But that is one adaptation I’d love to see.
It’s not my favorite, but I enjoyed Aquamarine. I read the book and watched the movie, and like both. Of course, the movie rewrote it and added some parts, but it gives the movie more originality. And in the book, Aquamarine never actually did become human, did she? She just pretended to be one on a wheelchair. And there wasn’t any conflict about a wish. However, the movie, which included the wish, did make the movie more intense.
My favorite right now would be Matilda. It was really funny and cute in both the film and the book. I loved the story from a smart kid’s point of view.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 was pretty darn bad. They decided to combine the last 3 books into one movie… which I guess is the only definitive way to say, “No more after this.” It didn’t make sense at all and jumped from book 2 to 4 to 3 and then back again. The characters are supposed to grow in each book but everything felt both rushed and stretched out at the same time. They changed it a lot from the books but I had a sense that they made it all complicated because the characters as they are in the books really do require each of their 4 story arcs from the 4 books. As a movie though, they probably should have chosen the best one for each character to make it simpler yet more impacting. Bridget’s storyline got intensely messed up… the Greta story is my favorite in the whole series!
I actually quite liked the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, Rachel, but then again, I’ve never actually read the book so I don’t know how true it is to the original.
I’m really struggling to think of any very good adaptions. The Harry Potter movies are just awful, in my opinion, but I guess that’s inevitable when the books themselves aren’t too great either. The Lord of the Rings films are pretty good, and I’d say that they’re better than the books themselves because the films were actually easier to understand and brought to life the world in which the story was set.
lizardgirl - The book is a lot better - more backstory, you get to know the story from the geisha’s point of view and understand her desires a lot more, and it paints a better picture of Japan than the movie does. I recommend it.
I agree, the Narnia movies are awesome. Oh, and while we’re on the subject about book-movie stuff, does anyone know about the other golden compass movies?
the only thing i don’t like about them is that they don’t put everything from the book in there. did you know that the fifth one in the series is the biggest book but it’s the shortest movie or so i’ve been told.
