# Movies based on novels that you feel rewrote the entire concept of the novel?



## Jakke (Jan 16, 2013)

For the positive or negative obviously, I mainly have two really negative ones.

1. Hannibal


Spoiler



For some reason the director deemed it wise to move from the very dark and disturbing ending of the novel Hannibal, possibly to try to maintain Clarice's innocence. That the whole point of the book, Starling losing her faith in the FBI after everyone she cared about disappearing, is lost because of that did not seem to trouble him at all. Silence of the Lambs is a brilliant movie, Red Dragon is okay, but I did not want to see Hannibal again after I watched it for the fist time. And WTF is up with Hannibal cutting off his own hand?



2. I Am Legend


Spoiler



If we ignore that Hollywood managed to turn one of the few really intelligent pieces in the zombie genre to a braindead (heh...) and generic action movie (however with a very touching dog-scene), my beef is with the ending. The ending in the novel is one of the most painfully hard-hitting pieces of literature I have read, just the realization of who really was the monster was mind-blowing when I first read it, and the movie managed to destroy any semblance of intellectual challenge. I have to add that the alternative ending (see below) is a lot better, as it reflects the original one, however without doing it exactly, and I can't for the life of me understand why they chose the ending where he dies completely unnecessarily instead of something that might make the audience think for a change. 
If it was done out of a primitive sense of "justice"... Would not Neville's punishment have been greater if he actually had lived and would have had to come to terms with what he had done to sentient creatures?





So, what do you have to whine about or praise?


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## Dommak89 (Jan 17, 2013)

Wow you just made me curious about the ending for "I am Legend". I actually liked the movie, but I think I need to rent a DVD to rewatch the ending and/or read the actual book.


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## tacotiklah (Jan 17, 2013)

I would say a few of the Harry Potter movies for sure. Things like introducing semi-important characters at the very end of the movie series when they were there and a part of the plot of the series from the second or third book on. (Bill comes to mind)
The whole "director needs their creative freedom" thing irks the shit out of me when people make a movie based on a book.


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## Grand Moff Tim (Jan 17, 2013)

I remember the very first time I saw a movie after having first read the novel: Jurassic Park, when I was 12. I remember being a bit disappointed at some of the things they ommitted, but wasn't overall disappointed in the movie itself.

That same year, I read Jaws before I had seen the movie. When I finally got around to seeing it (I know, I know, shame on me), I liked the movie _alot_ more than the book. The book seriously drags on and on and on in a few places, and I thought the movie solved those pacing problems pretty well. Doesn't hurt that it's a cinematic classic.

I'm currently reading the series of novels Game of Thrones is based on, though I didn't start reading them until after watching the two seasons of the show that are out so far (I was too impatient to wait until season three to see what happens, haha). It's another case like Jurassic Park, in that some of the stuff the show removes (or adds in) kinda leaves me scratching my head, but as a whole I'm still able to enjoy the show _and_ the books. Plus now that I'm _way_ ahead in the story, it's going to be interesting to see how they tackle some of the material, _and_ to see people who haven't read the books *freak the fuck out* at some of the stuff they're in store for during season three .


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## Winspear (Jan 17, 2013)

The first book in Philip Pullmans trilogy His Dark Materials - The Golden Compass aka Northern Lights.

These are my favourite books ever and are absolutely fantastic. The movie absolutely ruined the first book after I looked forward to it for years..It was way too fast and made it into a kids film. I really hope someone else gives this trilogy a go one day.


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## M3CHK1LLA (Jan 17, 2013)

the book "white fang" by jack london is one of my fav...the horrible movie adaptation was nothing like it.

he is better known for "call of the wild", but "white fang" is better by far imho. anyone else read?


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## Choop (Jan 17, 2013)

+1 for I Am Legend.


Spoiler



The title is directly related to the book's ending! The title doesn't even make sense for the movie version.



The World War Z movie will perhaps be a good example of this too. ><


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## thesnowdog (Jan 17, 2013)

The Scarlet Letter. I have no words.


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## Xaios (Jan 17, 2013)

ghstofperdition said:


> I would say a few of the Harry Potter movies for sure. Things like introducing semi-important characters at the very end of the movie series when they were there and a part of the plot of the series from the second or third book on. (Bill comes to mind)
> The whole "director needs their creative freedom" thing irks the shit out of me when people make a movie based on a book.



I'd say that they were pretty darn faithful for the first 4 movies. The problem then became that, as the books became longer, there was more and more material that they had to try and squeeze into the running time. They legitimately tried to with Goblet of Fire, but it ended up being WAY overwrought. Unfortunately, they then overreacted and trimmed too much for Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. They only really got the balance right again for Deathly Hallows I & II.

However, I would disagree that the changes they made affected the concept of the novels. In that regard, I think that they were quite true to the books, while (for the most part) standing as movies on their own.



Grand Moff Tim said:


> Plus now that I'm _way_ ahead in the story, it's going to be interesting to see how they tackle some of the material, _and_ to see people who haven't read the books *freak the fuck out* at some of the stuff they're in store for during season three .



They're actually splitting Storm of Swords into two seasons, so I get the feeling that *that* little event won't happen until the 4th.


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## Hemi-Powered Drone (Jan 17, 2013)

I Know What You Did Last Summer barely counts, they changed so much from the book it's barely recognizable save for the names of the character and that they killed someone the previous summer. 

Plus the movie was horrific while the book was kind of good.


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## Captain Shoggoth (Jan 17, 2013)

I Am Legend is like my textbook example for this

+100000 for citing it

the book's ending is one of my favourite endings of all time, the film's ending rustled my jimmies so much


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## soliloquy (Jan 17, 2013)

Howl's moving castle.
the book was awesome.
the movie was awesome.
aside from the names, and slight similarities, they both are so different that it made for a great movie.


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## vampiregenocide (Jan 17, 2013)

Grand Moff Tim said:


> I remember the very first time I saw a movie after having first read the novel: Jurassic Park, when I was 12. I remember being a bit disappointed at some of the things they ommitted, but wasn't overall disappointed in the movie itself.



They did change the story a hell of a lot, and made it way less gory.  There was talk that the film was going to be R-rated/18+ but the studios obviously saw the wider potential market and had it tamed down considerably.


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## The Grief Hole (Jan 17, 2013)

There will blood. The novel, 'Oil', focuses on Bunny and his developing ideologies. The film, as we know, focuses on the father.


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## SpaceDock (Jan 17, 2013)

For those of you that have read/seen it: Remains of the Day


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## Captain Butterscotch (Jan 17, 2013)

soliloquy said:


> Howl's moving castle.
> the book was awesome.
> the movie was awesome.
> aside from the names, and slight similarities, they both are so different that it made for a great movie.



I MUCH prefer the movie over that book, but yes, they are vastly different.


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## SenorDingDong (Jan 18, 2013)

The Princess Bride (movie is terrible, book is wonderful)

The Shining (see above)

IT (movie is a kiddy-scare film, while the book is deeply disturbing. There are only a handful of similarities between the two)

I Am Legend (movie should never have starred Will Smith, and was such a disgrace to the novel that Matheson spoke out against it)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (movies have always been hodgepodges of Through the Looking Glass/Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the Jabberwocky)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (movie is a botch, and misses out on so much of the humour prevalent in the series)

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (nothing like the novel--everything is topsy turvy or completely changed, even tiny details such as making the silver slippers ruby for Technicolor usage)




I could go on and on. All the above are negatives--things changed in the story so completely that, if you were to read the novel, you would wonder how one event became another.


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## Mexi (Jan 18, 2013)

The end to A Clockwork Orange was quite different from the novel, but I'm not sure how believable Burgess' ending was in the first place


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## thesnowdog (Jan 18, 2013)

Mexi said:


> The end to A Clockwork Orange was quite different from the novel, but I'm not sure how believable Burgess' ending was in the first place



I think it was a general match for the American release of the novel that lopped off the last chapter...from memory.


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## pink freud (Jan 18, 2013)

I'm fighting off a cold, so forgive me if it's already been mentioned, but Starship Troopers.

Book: Semi-fascist pro-military story about a boy coming of age, and using mech-suits.
Movie: Satire (that only the directer knew was a satire) of the above, and instead of mech-suits we got boobs and some quotable one-liners.


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## soliloquy (Jan 20, 2013)

i'm going to throw the hunger games here. (dont judge, i dont usually read, and this was the first time i read a book BEFORE seeing the movie...)


Spoiler



it may not be a literary master piece, but i thought that the main point of the first book was that she was defying everything about the reality tv concept. everything she did was a total mockery or live entertainment. 

at the same time, the complexity of the love story between peeta and katniss in the movie was not even worthy of 'wtf?!'. it just didn't make sense. 

plus, omitting several chapters all together, and on top of that, belittling the importance of some of the characters made the ending of the movie absurd to watch.


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## The Grief Hole (Jan 20, 2013)

SenorDingDong said:


> The Princess Bride (movie is terrible, book is wonderful)
> 
> The Shining (see above)
> 
> ...



IMO they didnt reerite the concept, they just left out key elements. The Shining left out Jack's transformation at the end and things like the garden etc. It? That novel is so dense there's no way it could be made in to a movie. Shame since it is my favourite book of his.


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## sakeido (Jan 21, 2013)

SenorDingDong said:


> The Princess Bride (movie is terrible, book is wonderful)


you cannot be serious. The book was merely interesting, the movie is hands down the best date movie ever created with nothing even coming to close to challenging its brilliance. 



> The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (movie is a botch, and misses out on so much of the humour prevalent in the series)


movie was still pretty damn funny and was just like the books



EtherealEntity said:


> The first book in Philip Pullmans trilogy His Dark Materials - The Golden Compass aka Northern Lights.
> 
> These are my favourite books ever and are absolutely fantastic. The movie absolutely ruined the first book after I looked forward to it for years..It was way too fast and made it into a kids film. I really hope someone else gives this trilogy a go one day.


I can't totally hate the movie, since I never would have read the books if they didn't turn them into a movie. Went and saw the film, loved it, read the books now I really don't like the movie. They had some nice casting decisions - Ms. Coulter, Lord Asriel and Lyra were all perfect but they just messed with the story way too much


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## Xaios (Jan 21, 2013)

sakeido said:


> oh my fucking god you cannot be serious. The book was merely interesting, the movie is hands down the best date movie ever created with nothing even coming to close to challenging its brilliance.



Agreed. That movie is a classic, and is infinitely quotable to boot.



sakeido said:


> movie was still pretty damn funny and was just like the books



The movie was perfectly enjoyable. While I don't think it lived up to the book, it did some things very well, like the Probability Drive bits, especially when they turn into yarn, and Alan Rickman _owns it_ as Marvin.


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## rifftrauma (Jan 21, 2013)

Blade Runner


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## Spike Spiegel (Jan 21, 2013)

Any of the film adaptations for and then there were none.
Every movie leaves people alive for fucks sake


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## goldsteinat0r (Jan 21, 2013)

pink freud said:


> I'm fighting off a cold, so forgive me if it's already been mentioned, but Starship Troopers.
> 
> Book: Semi-fascist pro-military story about a boy coming of age, and using mech-suits.
> Movie: Satire (that only the directer knew was a satire) of the above, and instead of mech-suits we got boobs and some quotable one-liners.


 
Unless you're completely derp, that movie was CLEARLY satire. Its so ridiculous.


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## SenorDingDong (Jan 21, 2013)

sakeido said:


> you cannot be serious. The book was merely interesting, the movie is hands down the best date movie ever created with nothing even coming to close to challenging its brilliance.
> 
> 
> movie was still pretty damn funny and was just like the books



Though I disagree with both of your statements, I came here to argue that the _Princess Bride_ movie was in fact one of the most terrible movies ever made. Then I looked it up and realized I was thinking if the _Princess Diaries_, which I saw when I was ten and never dared to attempt tolerating since  

I retract my statement; it was made in ignorance. I have not seen the movie. But I'm going to watch it this weekend, though, and if it isn't brilliant I'm going to bitch and moan and whine and blame you, so be warned


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## sakeido (Jan 21, 2013)

The movie has so much charm and charisma I think it is impossible not to like it. That movie being as great as it is really doesn't make sense - the acting isn't very good, the music is bad, the sets are only okay, but it just comes together so well.


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## kerska (Jan 21, 2013)

IT.....Pretty much any Stephen King really.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan and his movies hardly ever do justice. They usually make the movies into some mindless horror when his books have so much more detail and underlying things that make them very mentally scary as opposed to the movies making them just visually scary.

But IT is my biggest pet peeve. The whole thing with IT and Pennywise is IT is a shapeshifter and feeds off of people's individual fears and takes it's shape based on your fears. The movie just made him into a crazy clown, and they left out A LOT. Anyone who's read IT knows what I'm talking about with the Ritual of Chud, and the Turtle, and how the kids bond and belief in imagination is what actually made them strong against IT. A lot of the concepts that made IT so good is just straight up gone from the movie, and it just portrays a psycho clown who turns into a spider at the end.


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## SP1N3SPL1TT3R (Jan 21, 2013)

American Psycho. There's no way they could make a rated R movie, if they translated the book into a movie.

Fight Club.


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## ilyti (Jan 21, 2013)

rifftrauma said:


> Blade Runner



Book = masterpiece. Film = WAT

Im surprised no one has mentioned I Robot yet.


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## donray1527 (Jan 21, 2013)

Eragon. Great series, shitty movie. Different story altogether.


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## Jakke (Jan 21, 2013)

But it _did_ have Jeremy Irons...


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## M3CHK1LLA (Jan 22, 2013)

ive never read blade runner, but it is always listed in the top sci fi films of all time...

...i love the the movie myself and have seen it many times.


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## Xaios (Jan 22, 2013)

Jakke said:


> But it _did_ have Jeremy Irons...



Watching Jeremy Irons ham it up is the *only* conceivable reason to watch Dungeons & Dragons. He overacts *magnificently*.


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## brynotherhino (Jan 22, 2013)

I was rather surprised with how the Bourne trilogy turned out. They are pretty much 2 different stories with some of the same characters. Still enjoyed the movies though.


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## Sofos (Jan 23, 2013)

Tales from EarthSea. Same names, and thats about it


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## petereanima (Jan 24, 2013)

ASOIAF books / Game Of Thrones series.

While S01 was REALLY good imho, they pretty much ass-to-mouth'd the story in S02.


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## ilyti (Jan 26, 2013)

Nobody will have seen this garbage, but there was a film version of the Mary Shelley novel, _The Last Man_. I will wait until someone makes a good version, then I'll watch it, and after that, I'll read it. I tried to read it awhile ago and I quit. It sounds awesome if you read the premise (in the future, humanity is being wiped out by a plague until only the main character is left), but it's REALLY BORING. Of course, it was written in 1826.


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## flint757 (Jan 26, 2013)

Well the date doesn't mean much, Frankenstein was a great read.


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## wankerness (Jan 28, 2013)

Hannibal isn't a good movie, but I'm really thankful they removed the subplots about Verger being a child molester and the disgusting sex scenes between his mannish sister and barney the dude that used to be Hannibal's guard or whatever. That was one of the most outrageously disgusting books of all time, it's weird that he went from Silence of the Lambs to that.


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## wankerness (Jan 28, 2013)

kerska said:


> IT.....Pretty much any Stephen King really.
> 
> I'm a huge Stephen King fan and his movies hardly ever do justice. They usually make the movies into some mindless horror when his books have so much more detail and underlying things that make them very mentally scary as opposed to the movies making them just visually scary.
> 
> But IT is my biggest pet peeve. The whole thing with IT and Pennywise is IT is a shapeshifter and feeds off of people's individual fears and takes it's shape based on your fears. The movie just made him into a crazy clown, and they left out A LOT. Anyone who's read IT knows what I'm talking about with the Ritual of Chud, and the Turtle, and how the kids bond and belief in imagination is what actually made them strong against IT. A lot of the concepts that made IT so good is just straight up gone from the movie, and it just portrays a psycho clown who turns into a spider at the end.



Yeah, the movie of IT isn't very good, but it would have been rated X if it had copied the book in any faithful way. I think the worst thing about the movie was how they made it chronological instead of how it was in the book with the plotlines interweaving. Also the way that the chick really did wake up at the end instead of it being a dream sequence was pretty cheesy. I don't mind that they did away with the group sex scene with 13 year olds though.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and how they totally removed that idea of the mindlocking tonguebiting psychic shit with Bill vs the monster and instead just had all the people run up and physically beat the shit out of the giant spider was awful, but I guess it would have been incredibly difficult to visualize the concept in the book.


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## Xaios (Jan 28, 2013)

petereanima said:


> ASOIAF books / Game Of Thrones series.
> 
> While S01 was REALLY good imho, they pretty much ass-to-mouth'd the story in S02.



I think they did a damn good job, considering they had to pack a larger book into the season, including a large battle scene. I mean, realistically that battle scene alone could have been a Hollywood movie, with the scope that Martin details in the book. I mean, stuff like the boat wreckage forming a makeshift bridge over the river... that would have NEVER been feasible for television.

Yeah, they took quite a few more liberties here, but we have to accept that some things in books just do not work on TV.


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## petereanima (Jan 29, 2013)

Xaios said:


> I think they did a damn good job, considering they had to pack a larger book into the season, including a large battle scene. I mean, realistically that battle scene alone could have been a Hollywood movie, with the scope that Martin details in the book. I mean, stuff like the boat wreckage forming a makeshift bridge over the river... that would have NEVER been feasible for television.
> 
> Yeah, they took quite a few more liberties here, but we have to accept that some things in books just do not work on TV.



Oh, I think the battle @ blackwater for example was pretty well executed. It's more those unnecessary "wtf"-changes that disgust me...it kinda started around middle of S02 to get annoying...



Spoiler



.) Robb marrying - Let aside that they changed Jeyne Westerling to this redcross-girl (just to add some Teeny-twilight-romance), Robb would not get married by a Septon and speak some "Mother, Maiden, Crone"..old gods & heart-tree it should have been. Even if someone would say: "well, maybe its HER religion" - First of all: that wouldn't matter, as emancipation is rpetty much not there when you marry a "king", and second: she's from Volantis, they don't worship the seven. And finally: it looks more like he is marrying her because he's just mad at Catelyn and besides that: horny. Not out of honor as it should have been.

.) House of the undying / visions - wtf was that, "Moon of my life"-bullshit...yes, I am aweare that they can't show some of the visions as decribed in the book, because we as viewers know how some persons look, but that was just random shit. Also, there should have been more undying than just Pree and some holodeck-shizzle-copies of him...and since when did they steal the dragons? No, just no...

.) Jon going turncloak - the way they showed it seemed more like a "killing Halfhand in self defense", and also Jon didnt even tell the wildlings that he wants to "turncloak", and why would they based on this cut his chains? That makes no sense imho.



ADWD (book#5)-spoiler-related:



Spoiler



.) Xaro...whatever his name is - Him wanting to become king of Qatar and killing off all of the other Thirteen is just ridiculous. It's so illogical and seems like something out of a soap opera. Him fucking Danys handmaiden - o.k., HBO needs more tits and sex, I get that. But both getting locked up in the cault? I am interested how this turns out, as he reappears in ADWD.

My main problem is (and yes, of course this is kind of related due to the little time they have - but honestly, they could just focus a little bit more on evolvement of the importnat characters, than f.e. adding a (given: very hot) redhead slut, and if I understand the ending correct, making her a main character) that the evolvement of the characters doesnt add up to what they should be...

Based on how the characters evolved in the series:

.) no one will shed a tear for Robb at the Red Wedding. 

.) I'd vote for Slynt as Lord Commander. 



And those are just the first things that popped into my mind after almost a year not seeing it, and even longer not reading it.


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