Movies that don't live up to the book

[Magicalmrmistofeles]

Everyone thinks I'm weird, I don't do movies. The books are so much better...

I'm trying to watch Gone Girl now but god it's shit, the book wasn't great and now I'm bored.

I am part-way through the 2013 version of Great Gatsby, I expected to hate it but it's actually OK (although odd, with the modern music). I loved the Redford/Farrow version. With the new one, I feel the girl playing Daisy is just not special enough somehow. To really believe what Gatsby went through just to try and win her, she has to look supernaturally lovely, as Mia Farrow was. The new Daisy is a pretty enough girl but not in the same class somehow.

I don't see how anyone could understand The Golden Compass without reading the book. I was so looking forward to it. What a waste.

It looked good though. I think in the book Mrs Coulter is meant to be dark but I must have missed that because I always imagined her as looking like Nicole Kidman.

Nothing against the actor who played Lee Scoresby (my favourite character) but he didn't look right to me. I imagined Lee to be younger and more handsome.

On the other hand, and I know it's a play not a book, I really enjoyed Baz Luhrmann's version of Romeo and Juliet.

Possession. AS Byatt's novel is wonderful, the film could be stuffed with paxo at Christmas.

This is the one that immediately sprung to mind for me. Amazing book, insipid TV movie style adaptation.

Hi everyone,

With the kind permission of the OP, we are now going to move this thread over to the spiffy new Films topic.

Thanks!

There are some books which I don't think could be turned into films, at all, no matter how talented the screenwriter, producer, director, cast et al. Robertson Davies springs to mind. Cloud Atlas too (I think they've done that one though, and I've also heard it's pretty crap?)

The Golden Compass and the Percy Jacksons would have been better if they had just tried to make a completely new film "from an idea by....."

I agree with films previous posted:

101 Dalmations. Love the book (and Starlight Barking). Cartoon- Pongo and Missus. not Pongo and Perdita. Perdita was another dog, a liver spotted Dalmation who had also lost her puppies.

Time Travellers Wife was just an awful adaptation of a lovely book.

My Sisters Keeper. Nooooo don't change the ending. That's the bit that really made the book for me.

I would like to add:

Circle Of Friends. I love the book, it has a brilliant ending where she has moved on and is strong. The film was terrible- she was just a doormat.

Along Came a Spider.
Brilliant book, one of the best crime thrillers I have ever read.
The film was the wettest pile of bilge I have ever seen. Half the plot wasn't there and the rest they screwed around with.

Most books simply have too much story in them for it to be possible to make a good film. This is why TV adaptations are normally so much better, eg Pride & Prejudice: BBC, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth > Film, Keira Knightley

I just wanted to say - A Room with a View. I adore this film (and frankly I'm not a period drama sort of person) but its filled with wit and sillyness and pompousness with a bit of passion thrown in, and its all terrifically British.
I had never read any EM Forster, so I gave the book a go (after I'd seen the the film) and was quite pleasantly surprised that it was very very similar - both in tone and storyline.

I read the percy Jackson books with my son and we were really excited when the films came out, urgh they are terrible!

I agree with the green mile film being just as good as the book and I also like the film version of The Devil Wears Prada.

Has anyone read Forrest Gump, now that is definitely a case of the film being better than the book. But that could have been down to the magic of Tom Hanks.

How to Train your Dragon

Much prefer the books.

Yes, BikeRunSki, a perfect example of "from an idea by ......"
film.

I haven't read the whole thread yet but has anyone else said Slumdog Millionaire yet? I'm still mad about what they did to it. I think if I hadn't read the book first it would have been fine but I was so mad about how they changed...well, everything! Grrr

Q&A was an amazing book. Slumdog Millionaire was a load of old shite.

One day ..... Great book awful film

Not sure if it's already been mentioned, but World War Z. I actually read the book after watching the movie (which although scared the crap out of me - they are some fast zombies - I quite enjoyed) and the movie bares almost no resemblance to the book at all. They pretty much just took the title and made an new story altogether!

Eagle Of The Ninth and The Dark Is Rising ... Two of my all time best reads totally fucked-up filmwise ...

It depends whether I've read the book or seen the film first. First impressions count a huge amount.

Main film that is MUCH better than the book was Ordinary People. You'd think the book would be better for getting inside people's heads, but it just didn't do it for me and I couldn't cope with how much swearing there was in the book compared to the film. Might have thought differently if I'd read the book first.

Yes, it's annoying if a film plot messes with what happened in the book (Time Travellers Wife - argh), but sometimes if a film follows a book closely I end up feeling disappointed as it doesn't give me anything extra - I already know the plot and my personal special effects are often superior to block buster FX.

World War Z agree....little connection with the book ! However, I wish HBO had made it a TV series...it could have been awesome as falls naturally into episodes.

I try to avoid watching anything with Nicholas cage in it which has served me well over the years.

Am heartened by all the hate on here for The Dark Is Rising.

UsedtobeFeckless, do you mean The Lost Legion (shit film, unintentionally hilarious), or The Eagle? I didn't want to see either as ive loved Eagle of the Ninth for decades, but eventually did (long after they came out) - and was surprised by how much I loved The Eagle. I miss Cottia and Cub, but they are still in the books safe for me, and I thought they did well to strip the story rigjt back, and even mess with some things. I think it really works as an evocation of Roman Britain.

One flew over the cuckoos nest - Great book and great film.

Girl interrupted - Awful book, meh film

The Girl with the dragon tattoo - Good book, good film

Eragon - a lovely fantasy book (first of four in the Inheritance Cycle) for teenagers. Very readable, page turner etc. The film was astoundingly bad and anyone who has the misfortune of seeing it would probably never pick up the book.

RackofPeas I agree about along came a spider, kiss the girls wasn't very good either!

greymalkin about Eragon, my then 11yo DS spluttered "It's p-preposterous! They've left out the most important part!". I was just sad to see my beloved Jeremy Irons paying off another bit of his Irish castle...