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Films that were better than their books

FractiousDay

FractiousDay

Location
United Kingdom
Films get a lot of flak from book purists, but I think there's been a few adaptations that were superior to their source work.

Firstly, Timeline

I thought the original was very plodding, particularly the parts at the start where the author tried to explain time travel.

More controversially, Lord of the Rings

I really enjoyed the books, but the score, and visuals in the films were particularly good. There is perhaps something to be said for preserving the feel of the originals, but equally, some of the storylines were very slow
 
Starship Troopers.

It's a great evisceration of the beliefs and society that Heinlein held near and dear to himself.
 
The Godfather. Not to criticize Mario Puzo or anything, but Coppola did the right thing by removing Sonny's horse dick and his girlfriend's cavernous vagina. Spielberg also typically spins masterpieces out of garbage; Jaws and Jurassic Park.

Also, on the geek front: Blade is the best and baddest comic book movie ever, and it didn't get there by adhering to the funnybooks.
 
Hunt for Red October.

I can remember many scenes from the film. Only thing I can remember from the book was a Russian sub's reactor melting down 'cause the political officer wouldn't let them slow to a safe speed, ending with the sub sinking.
 
Twilight.

Yes, Twilight. Because Twilight the movie has the benefit of unintentional comedy, good actors even if they're not acting good, and basic competence in filmmaking.

Sufficient Juice said:
Also, on the geek front: Blade 2 is the best and baddest comic book movie ever, and it didn't get there by adhering to the funnybooks.
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FTFY.

I'd say that if you made it the movie vs. the comics entire history as a whole, a lot of the really good superhero movies comes out smelling better than the source materiel.
 
Mental Omega said:
It's a great evisceration of the beliefs and society that Heinlein held near and dear to himself.
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I don't think those were Heinlein's beliefs, considering he also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land with hippie themes and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress can be read as libertarian.

TAX:
Do comics count as books? Because I'd consider the entire MCU to be better than the source material, if only because it's been compressed and refined from the source material into an understandable form unburdened by 60+ years of backstory and retcons.
 
lelenoi said:
I don't think those were Heinlein's beliefs, considering he also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land with hippie themes and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress can be read as libertarian.
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Especially considering that the director apparently admitted to not even finishing the book cause he had a bad visceral reaction.

I think Stephen King claimed that he thought the ending of The Mist as adapted by Darabont was brilliant right?
 
Mental Omega said:
Starship Troopers.

It's a great evisceration of the beliefs and society that Heinlein held near and dear to himself.
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Book protagonist: Latino
Film Protagonist: Aryan

DO YOU SEE SOMETHING WRONG HERE? Especially considering the director refused to even finish reading the book after the first 10 or so pages.

Although as a counterpoint, I agree on the film being superior to the book, viewing it as a satire—not on Heinlein's work, but on the genre that sprung up from Starship Troopers.

Cunuroi said:
I think Stephen King claimed that he thought the ending of The Mist as adapted by Darabont was brilliant right?
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Yup. If I remember right, Darabont got an email from King specifically about that and he has yet to delete it out of pride... Or something like that.

Anyways, to answer OP


The book is a magnificent comedy, make no mistake... But god damn was this film just Good.
 
RedDwarfIV said:
Hunt for Red October.

I can remember many scenes from the film. Only thing I can remember from the book was a Russian sub's reactor melting down 'cause the political officer wouldn't let them slow to a safe speed, ending with the sub sinking.
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As a man that read (and has) the book itself and watched the movie, there was no such thing. They did damage the drive system however due to over-working it however (the cooling units broke down from going way beyond their limit thanks to said political officer... but I'm remembering it off my head here).

Also, they did visualize the sub battle pretty decently for Hollywood standards... but given who wrote the book (it wasn't until Tom Clancy turned his name into a trademark that the overall quality went to rollercoaster territory as more authors got into the pie), it's understandable. I mean here is the guy who can make several paragraphs of just countering one salvo of torpedoes and make it believable and exciting.
 
I might get shat on for this but Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Don't get be wrong, the books are phenomenal, but the movies-especially with all the extended scenes- holy shit they are FANTASTIC.
 
The Gundam Unicorn OVAs were definitely better than the novels. The novels were alright, but there was some really shit stuff in there. Most all of it was cut for the OVAs, which also came with absolutely gorgeous art and a magnificent musical score.

Cthaeth said:
I might get shat on for this but Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Don't get be wrong, the books are phenomenal, but the movies-especially with all the extended scenes- holy shit they are FANTASTIC.
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LOTR, yes. Hobbit? Nopity nope. Pacing on 2 & 3 was garbage, and a lot of the material altered from the book wasn't for the better. Music and cinematography were still really nice though.
 
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Yeah. You're Right. The Film's a Satire yes? What about the Sequel?
 
Possibly Eragon? I hear the movie cut out a lot that was in the book, so I assume it was some garbage that didn't make sense as opposed to a lot of garbage.
 
Insufficient Dakka said:
Possibly Eragon? I hear the movie cut out a lot that was in the book, so I assume it was some garbage that didn't make sense as opposed to a lot of garbage.
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They're both different but equal in their terrible, IMO. The book was terribly written but had a kind of soul to it, while the film cut some of the terrible but was also poorly done in a lot of respects and felt a lot like a soulless cash-in.
 
MrLZRS said:
Yeah. You're Right. The Film's a Satire yes? What about the Sequel?
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Well one of the things they could have done was put in a lot of the other stuff like the Skinnies and maybe some more political commentary. But the second one was a generic action film with relatively little of the satire that made the first one so good. Also much smaller budget, so just in general not great. The third one was rubbish as well

Insufficient Dakka said:
Possibly Eragon?
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I actually thought the book was better. The film made it a low quality fantasy film, without the worldbuilding of the book. Book wasn't great, but it was alright
 
Aaron Fox said:
As a man that read (and has) the book itself and watched the movie, there was no such thing. They did damage the drive system however due to over-working it however (the cooling units broke down from going way beyond their limit thanks to said political officer... but I'm remembering it off my head here).
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Read it again. A bearing (which could have been replaced had they been given the chance) tears itself apart, resulting in the reactor getting breached. The core then basically melts its way out of the submarine, opening the inner hull to sea. The submarine then sinks.

It was basically there to show how political officers were a bad idea.
 
RedDwarfIV said:
Read it again. A bearing (which could have been replaced had they been given the chance) tears itself apart, resulting in the reactor getting breached. The core then basically melts its way out of the submarine, opening the inner hull to sea. The submarine then sinks.

It was basically there to show how political officers were a bad idea.
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Oh, wait you mean one of the other subs?
 
The novelisation of Revenge of the Sith was better than the movie. EDIT Herp derp I misread the title of the thread

Um... shit, people have already mentioned what I want to say. +1 for Starship Troopers being way better than its book.
 
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I think I like The Martian film better then the book? There's some stuff the movie left out I wish they'd kept, and the whole Iron Man scene was dumb, but I really hated how everyone treats the Director character in the book, and thought the movie handled it much better.
 
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