Great book, horrible movie

[paintingploddy]

Have to say i\'m stunned about Battlefield earth. I leafed through a friends copy read a page and a half in the middle and ran into three cliches. It is because of that book and one other (The first of the Invasion earth series. The foreword/prologue identifying that this is satire, and if you don\'t get it you are stupid really had me worried for a while. That was until I realised that there is good satire and then there is the terrible terrible dross I had just paid for) that I can\'t take Scientology seriously.

 

[paintingploddy]

Tom Cruise may have something to do with my prejudice as well.

On topic the worst adaptation would have to be the original animated version of the Return of the King. Orcs marching to a song of \"Where there\'s a whip there\'s a way.\"

 

[airhead]

Originally posted by paintingploddy
...Orcs marching to a song of \"Where there\'s a whip there\'s a way.\"

Thanks, I\'ll be humming that all day now.

And to get back on-topic:
The D&D movie. Could it have been much worse? A fortune spent on a decent beholder CG only to have it be a poor watchdog...

 

[DaN]

The AvP books were GREAT, and the film was...
Well - completely different, but then I guess they did it to \"explain\" it to non-fans.

Maybe AvP2 will be like the book?

Sticking to Aliens, Alien3 was a great book.

The film... Well...

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Micha
The Jackal by F. Forsyth is maybe the best polotical thriller ever, at least one of the best, but I found the movie very strange and somewhat dull (although it had Bruce Willis in it if I´m not mistaken).
Micha

Micha I hate to point out but you got taken in by the HOLLYWOOD rip off machine. The Bruce Willis movie was a very P*ss Poor Rip Off of the excellent original movie starring Edward Fox, which is very very close to the book.

There is an anecdotal story about Edward Fox being taken into a Cafe in France by Fredrick Forsythe and meeting the man [/i]The Jackal[/i] was based on. (Not sure if that\'s one of the newer \'Urban\' movie myths or it\'s true. Would like to find out

Da Vinci Code ....Serious let down.

Battlefield Earth & L Ron Hubbard....Far to easy a target to even bother with.

 

[Einion]

\'Great book, horrible movie\' is too easy Dave, practically everyone will know one. What about the opposite? In fact, good idea for me own thread...

Originally posted by Evil Dave
My two nominations are:
Starship Troopers - A great book that every Sci Fi fan should read at least once.
The movie missed the point completely, and was bad, but still enjoyable in a bad way.

This is always my first thought too as I loved the book and think it\'s brilliant, especially for its time. So we wait, what, 40+ years and get a schlocky, badly-acted (Hey look, I\'ve got a 10cm hole right through my shoulder but I can still move my arm. Lots. See????) movie :flame: Can anyone say carried by special effects?

Originally posted by Evil Dave
Battlefield Earth - The top of the list.
The book is amazing...

I didn\'t like the book either, although it is a lot better than the film (not that that would be difficult!)

Originally posted by airhead
The only thing worse was Starship Troopers 2.

Oh please God don\'t remind me.

Originally posted by Swordwind
Starship Troopers 3 looks like it\'ll be closer to the book by actually featuring power armour.

Don\'t tease!

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
The Bruce Willis movie was a very P*ss Poor Rip Off of the excellent original movie starring Edward Fox, which is very very close to the book.

Ah, a traditionalist after me own heart

Einion

 

[ipaintminis]

Originally posted by tomusannonymous
Eregon was a really good book (although you could tell what his inspiration was, lotr, warcraft etc.)
but the movie stunk, it was rushed and they missed a lot of the story, the actors didn\'t look how i imagined them in the book (didn\'t match the description the book gave very well), and it was all-round a very corny movie...even my brother who hadn\'t read the book said that they could have done better

I completely totally absolutually agree with you. Eragon the movie was a let down considering how great the books were. I can only hope they don\'t butcher Eldest like that.


there are so many, and now all day i\'ll be thinking about some to put back here. but we can start with

~The original Dune with Sting (the SciFi version was 14766463832636 times better)
~Around the world in 80 days
~10 things i hate about you (Taming of the Shrew anyone?)
~Bridge to Terabithia (i haven\'t seen the movie yet, but i have pre consieved notions)
~Clueless (that was based on Emma??? I think not)
~The Constant Gardner


I\'ll think of more

 

[vincegamer]

Becca, Dune is a good call. If you\'ve read the book, the movie makes sense but is disappointing. If you haven\'t read the book, the movie makes no sense and is annoying.

Still,
I vote for any adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story (From Beyond, Reanimator etc.)

 

[darthfoley]

Have you seen the somewhat recently released (2005 I think) silent film version of Call Of Cthulhu? Pretty darned accurate and fun to watch.

 

[ipaintminis]

Originally posted by vincegamer
Becca, Dune is a good call. If you\'ve read the book, the movie makes sense but is disappointing.

exactly! and that little prestart-info thing was rediculous.

Like I said, i\'m very very glad scifi came out with a new one that is 10 thousand times better

and has the Becca Seal of Approval!

 

[Elly3438]

I agree about the D&D movie... a beholder watchdog, fooled by a thrown rock! No death rays, no chompy chomp action... the whole movie was quite a disgrace!

My number one vote goes to Chronicles of Narnia... that was SO lame I cannot even describe it... I almost threw stuff when the kid raised his sword (barely - what a weener) and yells \" For naaaahniaaaah!\" and then his little brother repels minotaur blows with his \"Medieval Times\" shield... and then the one kid again is clearly outmatched by the queen who is double parrying and such suddenly cant pull off anything against the gimpy kid (who can kill nasty wolves by holding the sword out with his arms straight... because we all know wolves jump on swords... could have been a depressed wolf I guess)... I gotta stop! hehe anyways it was one of the most disappointing movies Ive ever seen... (up there with Matrix: Revolutions) The books though, I loved em! and still do

 

[Undave]

~The original Dune with Sting (the SciFi version was 14766463832636 times better)

Yeah cos the reason the Sardaukar are the toughest hardest army in the known universe is because their enemies die laughing at the utterly stupid hats stuck to the side of their heads lollollol

The movie version was way better even with the extended tv edition with the extra half hour of footage it still makes no sense... fantastic I tell you

 

[ipaintminis]

do you mean the movie version from the 80\'s? is better than the SciFi version?

 

[hakoMike]

John Varley\'s Millennium (Wikipedia book / movie)

I enjoyed the book so much, and dragged a reluctant friend on an hour long drive to go see the film. How embarrassing.

For a while, I was guessing that Lost was following this plotline .... dunno anymore.

 

[supervike]

Originally posted by darthfoley
Have you seen the somewhat recently released (2005 I think) silent film version of Call Of Cthulhu? Pretty darned accurate and fun to watch.

I really want to see that...but do I want to plop down 20 bucks to own it?

I\'ve been into all things Lovecraftian of late.

 

[darthfoley]

I don\'t regret spending 20 bucks on it at all. I got a huge kick out of it.

Is it Spielbergian? No...but it\'s accurate and well acted.

Put it this way - one of the lines in the story that always stuck with me was about the geometry of the place being all wrong - and this movie actually made it LOOK wrong...don\'t ask me how.

 

[Yetie]

Got to agree about Narnia it was rubbish, I\'ve loved the books since I was a little one (my first ever proper book). The film was such a let down, it felt rushed there was no reason to like the characters. The Ice Queen had more depth than any1 else, IMO she was the best played part Aslan didnt even seem as if he wanted to be there. On the Stephen King front, when its done good its brilliant (misery, The Shining) when its done bad OMG (tommy knockers etc).

 

[Undave]

Hmm well I seem to be alone in prefering the film version of Dune to the miniseries. IMHO even though it was done in the 80s the special effects were rather good (fantastic for the time) the acting was..... patchy but there were some outstanding performances and it carried an air of menace that the miniseries completely lacked. The singular thing that ruined the miniseries for me was the costuming, I mean aside from the unnecessary levity of the sardaukar uniforms it was just too over the top.

Just because something looks flashier and has more up to date special effects doesn\'t mean it\'s automatically better by any means. By the same token just because it\'s got Sting in it don\'t make it crap. I thought he was cast rather well as the ginger nutter Feyd Rautha. In fact the entire Harkonnen family puts the miniseries lot to shame in sheer vomit inducing disgustingness :|~lol

edit: How cool would it be if they did a version of Dune with Clive Barker in charge of design............

 

[Torn blue sky]

Dear GOD! I watched Eragon on the plane to Boston!
I could have watched something better like pre-school cartoons
Theres a LOT of things I hate about that movie, one major point is how he becomes a hero in the space of 10 mins from being a weedy cowardly nothing :cussing:

I do Agree about AvP2 though, the first one was more of a preview Think whats going to happen when the aliens get to a predator homeworld

 

[Yetie]

I didnt even know there were AvP books, just the thought of the Predator homeworld is let alone AvP on said planet