Favorite Books Destroyed by the Movie

JNick77
JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
edited October 3 in Chit-Chat
The soundtrack thread got me thinking about this. Inevitably a movie comes out about our favorite book or a book we really enjoyed reading. Some movies are pretty good and some are just awful in relation to the book. I'll start,

Decent translation:
1. Da'Vinci Code: The movie was actually pretty well done, pretty happy overall
2. Hunt for Red October: Decent transition to film

Awful
1. Jurassic Park: almost completely different, even the sequel
2. Star Wars Prequels (all 3): The books were really good and gave great insight into the characters, the movies...

Your turn...
«13

Replies

  • LuluGirl140
    LuluGirl140 Posts: 364 Member
    My Sister's Keeper. The book had a MUCH better ending...Good movie if you hadn't read the book. Good interpretation except for the ending. Sad.
  • Fayve
    Fayve Posts: 406 Member
    Not quite a movie, but a TV series:

    Sword of Truth was always my favourite, by Terry Goodkind. They made it into a TV show called 'Legend of the Seeker". It's like one massive blob of turd that they're presenting to us.

    Such an incredible story, ruined /sigh.
  • ksmarathon2010
    ksmarathon2010 Posts: 70
    I agree, My Sister's Keeper, the wrong sister dies in the movie.
  • Brittany1414
    Brittany1414 Posts: 60
    Water for Elephants...book was amazing....movie not so much!!
    Im reading The Help right now and I hope the moivce is as good as the book!
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    Tomorrow When The War Began was actually done pretty decent. :)
  • treesloth
    treesloth Posts: 162 Member
    Yeah, ditto on Legend of the Seeker. The only real upside of the TV series is that the producers are apparently unaware of the existence of anything other than absurdly hot women, and they dressed them all in tight leather. Really lousy TV show. I watched every episode religiously.
  • jenbit
    jenbit Posts: 4,252 Member
    OMG this is my biggest pet peev lets see where do I start......
    Angels and Demons
    Congo
    Jurrassic park all 1&2( I dont even think there was a third book)
    Sphere
  • SDkitty
    SDkitty Posts: 446 Member
    Any movie based on a Stephen King novel or short story.

    Oh and Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned...Interview was just bad acting and QotD changed waaaay too many important plot points.
  • rgraubner
    rgraubner Posts: 31
    The Hunger Games series is awesome, but just by looking at who they've casted for the movie.... TERRIBLE. I'm boycotting.
  • jaxCarrie
    jaxCarrie Posts: 214 Member
    The movie 'The Help' is pretty good...I still liked the book a lot better - deeper character development, etc....but the movie surprised me...I usually don't like the movies if I've read the book...
  • LauraMacNCheese
    LauraMacNCheese Posts: 7,173 Member
    The entire Twilight series thus far...we'll see how Breaking Dawn fairs later this year...
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    I agree, My Sister's Keeper, the wrong sister dies in the movie.

    Really? I don't get how move producers pull that off. How and why would you change the story like that??? Obviously fans fo the book are going to see the movie.
  • Angelgrl86
    Angelgrl86 Posts: 74 Member
    The Secret Life of Bees.. the book was good, but the movie was awful. Way too many changes and important things left out of the story
  • arewethereyet
    arewethereyet Posts: 18,702 Member
    "The Thornbirds"

    :sad:

    I had to re-read the book to get my beautiful visuals back. Especially the priest. My imagination was much better than Richard Chamberlain.:glasses:
  • Ireshgurl
    Ireshgurl Posts: 559
    Totally agree on "My Sister's Keeper". I've read "Water for Elephants", but haven't seen the movie yet. Gonna have to go with "Eragon" for my least favorite book to movie. They UTTERLY destroyed the story line, left out characters, and the acting was horrible.
  • LauraMacNCheese
    LauraMacNCheese Posts: 7,173 Member
    I agree, My Sister's Keeper, the wrong sister dies in the movie.

    Really? I don't get how move producers pull that off. How and why would you change the story like that??? Obviously fans fo the book are going to see the movie.

    Hollywood calls it "poetic license" and then hides behind that to destroy some literary masterpieces on the big screen...in short they are asshats.
  • CatMauro
    CatMauro Posts: 225 Member
    Water for Elephants...book was amazing....movie not so much!!
    Im reading The Help right now and I hope the moivce is as good as the book!

    Good to know, I really enjoyed the book.

    When I was younger I read alot of Stephen King...Most of the movie adaptations were TERRIBLE. 2 exceptions: Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me (ironically both from the same book of 4 short stories).
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    OMG this is my biggest pet peev lets see where do I start......
    Angels and Demons
    Congo
    Jurrassic park all 1&2( I dont even think there was a third book)
    Sphere

    RE Angels and Demons: I'm surprised because I really felt Da' Vinci Code was well done. Even the actors they casted for the roles were perfect.

    RE Jurassic Park: Wasn't it awful?? Book 1 and Movie 1 were almost two different stories. I remember right didn't the old man get killed by the little dinosaurs or something or at least attacked and hurt?
  • Pebble321
    Pebble321 Posts: 6,423 Member
    Time Travellers Wife.
    I love the book but thought that the movie just failed to capture the mood.
  • jenbit
    jenbit Posts: 4,252 Member
    Any movie based on a Stephen King novel or short story.

    Oh and Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned...Interview was just bad acting and QotD changed waaaay too many important plot points.

    If they make it out of a SK short story they usually dont screw them up to bad. QOTD was the worst piece of garbage ever but that was also because they tried to combine the vampire lestat and QOTD and just ripped out the middle
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
    Any movie based on a Stephen King novel...

    I agree with 2 exceptions. The Kubrick version of The Shining (with Jack Nicholson) and the miniseries version of The Stand. The rest were pretty terrible. To be fair, though, his books are really not good to be made into movies, too many controversial things that can't really be filmed. :laugh:
  • SDkitty
    SDkitty Posts: 446 Member
    When I was younger I read alot of Stephen King...Most of the movie adaptations were TERRIBLE. 2 exceptions: Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me (ironically both from the same book of 4 short stories).

    I will agree with you on those two, although you have to admit those are not typical Stephen King stories.
  • lazyspice
    lazyspice Posts: 8,258 Member
    Clan of the Cave Bear - I love the book but the film was dire :grumble:
  • SDkitty
    SDkitty Posts: 446 Member
    Whoever said Eragon, that was by far the worst film adaption I have ever seen. I'll never understand why, when script writers have a best selling story to begin with, why they feel the need to change half the story. Stupid.
  • jenbit
    jenbit Posts: 4,252 Member
    Oh heres another one that was a TV miniseries
    Sparrowhawk
    Oh and the origanal DUNE movie I love the books and Im conviced the authors are still sick
  • JNick77
    JNick77 Posts: 3,783 Member
    What about Comic Books? Now granted those can be a little more dynamic because even within one company they might have different variations of different characters and stuff.

    I'm a big Batman fan and the original movie with Michael Keaton was disgusting I thought but really all of them except Chris Nolan's Batman were bad.

    I am really interested to see how they do the new Spider Man. It seems like it'll be taken from the Ultimate Universe.
  • HMonsterX
    HMonsterX Posts: 3,000 Member
    OMG...so much negativity!

    :P
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
    i loved the hunger games. i hope the movie coming out is going to be good.
  • Naytahlee
    Naytahlee Posts: 53 Member
    Most Stephen King movies are shameful representations of the books. The ones I thought were awesome were Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me and The Green Mile (although it leaves some things out they still did a great job), and of course the original version of The Shining, again a little different the book but what an awesome movie.

    The Notebook by Nickolaus Sparks I actually liked the movie better than the book.
  • fridayjustleft04
    fridayjustleft04 Posts: 851 Member
    My Sister's Keeper, just because of the ending; the rest was good. (Side note, they're turning another Jodi Picoult novel into a movie and this one follows the book..I just can't remember which book.) Also, I didn't like the movie version of Harlan Coben's Tell No One. However, I liked the movie versions of Precious and The Blind Side better than the books.
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