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Thursday, December 21, 2017

Nominations Needed ("The Book Was Better" Poll)

EDIT: NOMINATIONS ARE CLOSED.

Anything times stamped after 1:15 on the US-west coast will no longer be part of the poll. 

Sorry for the inconvenience but it had been days.

Something a little different for our next poll, so listen close.

There are lots of good book made into good movies (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter). And there are tons of okay books made into pretty decent movies (Hunger Games, Life of Pi). And of course the bad books made into bad movies are innumerable.

But today's poll is about those movies that somehow hide treasures in their source literature. Where the book isn't just better, but it's "SO MUCH BETTER, OH MY GOD YOU HAVE TO READ IT!"

This isn't a poll about the best book or about the best movie. It's about the movies no one seems to know are really books or no one seems to know just how goddamned good the book is.

Rules- 

NOTE THE ADDENDUM RULE AT THIS LINK!!!! 

1- As always, I leave the semantics to your best judgement because I'd rather be inclusive. The last thing I want to do is police whether or or not a book is "good" enough or a movie NOT good enough to count.

2- You may nominate two (2) books. Remember that I am the worst sort of human imaginable who hates free will and all things that smell like liberty.  I will NOT take any books beyond the second that you suggest. (I will consider everything after your second rec in a long list to be "seconds" if the work is nominated before or after yours.)

3- You may (and should) second as many nominations of others as you wish. That is the only way they'll be making it to the final poll.

4- Put your nominations here. Not on my Facebook wall. Not on Writing About Writing's FB page. Not on Google. HERE.  I will take nominations on reminder posts; however, they may not get the seconds you need to go onto our poll because no one will see them. But I can't sift through all the social media cross posting. (Every poll there are great nominations on FB or Google that never make the poll because they just weren't here to be seconded.)

5- Try to keep in mind the perimeters of the poll. The Martian is a good book and a good movie, but the former is almost a script of the latter with a few changes. What this poll is about is the books that are vastly, wonderfully better.

6- "Best" means whatever you as a reader think it should. Most challenging. Most engaging. Most fun. Most literary. The most epic sub-plots that were never in the movie. It's up to you what "best" means.

OH AND BY THE WAY....the poll that is up (best modern fantasy) still needs your vote.

316 comments:

  1. One entry: 'The World According to Garp'. John Irving's novel was a cultural touchstone for so many among us from that era.
    The screenwriters destroyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Poltergeist was a great movie (IMHO...I was twelve when it came out, and it scared the bejeezus out of me). I don't know if the book is BETTER per se, but I think it goes above and beyond the usual rushed-novel-based-on-a-hit-movie fare. Author James Kahn shows us a lot more of Tangina's POV, and the other-dimensional doings on the other side of the closet--a very welcome supplement to the celluloid story.
    https://www.amazon.com/Poltergeist-James-Kahn/dp/0446302228/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

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  3. Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) - Philip Pullman

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  4. ...and a FB commenter nominated Watership Down. Heartily seconded.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thirded -- even though the movie is my favorite animated film that wasn't produced by Studio Ghibli.

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    2. Second this one. I have high hopes for the new adaptation though.

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  5. The Neverending Story (I'm leaving the comment because it didn't work for someone who tried to comment here).

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  6. 1. A Long Way Down (the book had a laugh-out-loud gallows humor to go along with its heartwarming message about four unlikely friends who help each other avoid suicide. The humor not at all captured on screen and wasn't really attempted.)

    2. Ghost World (this graphic novel was superbly poignant and was only really half-adapted by the movie, which devoted a large amount of screen time to a character played by Steve Buscemi that appeared in only two or three panels of the book)

    Dylan James

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. About a boy was similarly disappointing. Film didn't even mention Kurt Cobain. (Legal reasons I believe.)

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  7. My nominations are The Lightning Thief and Eragon.

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  8. 1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Part II if you have to pick, but both were horrendous.

    2. A lot of Stephen King adaptations. Pet Cemetery is the one that comes to mind the most. Mostly for the spoiled ending and the zero-horror factor.

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  9. Ender's Game. The book is sublime - ana analysis of strategic thinking, a reflection on the struggles of youth, a statement on the nature of pragmatism and abuse...
    The movie pulls the rug out from all of that in its opening narration, and reduces the whole story to an abridged and lacklustre action sci fi. Also, I don't know if anyone was aware of this, but Ben Kingsley is not a Maori.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Also seconding Ender's Game, although I liked the movie. I just don't think it can stand on its own; you need to have read and memorized the book to get it.

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    2. Yes. Ender’s Game. Yet another second. (Or should it be a “third”.

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  10. 1. Harry Potter. Specifically, the Prisoner of Azkaban. I don’t know what the director was thinking but between the talking shrunken head, Miggle clothes at school, magic being done outside of school (Harry would have been expelled in the very first scene), and the complete cut of very real subplot (crookshanks/scabbers Fight. Seriously. Ron and Hermione didn’t speak to each other for half the book) and every other major change it shouldn’t have even been called Harry Potter.

    2. Ella Enchanted. This is one of the most well-written and creative Cinderella stories of all time. The movie was a sideshow attraction.

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    Replies
    1. I second Ella Enchanted and Harry Potter

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    2. I was going to say Ella Enchanted as well.

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    3. I agree, Ella Enchanted robbed Ella of her victory.

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    4. Second HP Prisoner of Azkaban

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    5. Effing yes, Prisoner of Azkaban. I was going to say the whole HP series, but if we have to go by single books, then definitely that one.

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  11. 1. The Name of the Rose - in my opinion, the massive amount of historical background that was completely ignored in the movie annoyed me, when watching it again right after reading the book.
    2. The Hobbit, although I can't quite understand why the film trilogy had to end up so abysmally bad.

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  12. My nominations:

    1. The Princess Bride - while the movie was still quite good (for a change), the book is far, far superior, and I think lots of folks still don't realize there is one.

    2. World War Z (totally agree on this one) - movie horrible, book great.

    3. Jurassic Park - movie was fun, but the book is WAY better.

    4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Bladerunner - great movie, great story, so hard to lump this in, but I think it qualifies since only die-hard science fiction lovers know the source material for the movie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Second Princess Bride even though I love the movie.

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    2. Second Jurassic park. The movie failed to ask the deep questions about science that the book did.

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  13. Replies
    1. Third through infinity for Starship Troopers. It's not my favorite Heinlein book, but the movie was fraki drek.

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    2. 4thed + for Starship Troopers

      A book about a youth realizing the nature of active citizenship vs just living somewhere gets tuned into a b rate sci-fi shoots movie.
      They couldn't even get the military or aliens right...
      (Plus gratuitous nudity, shoehorned romantic subplot, and somehow painting a service based democratic republic as a militaristic fascist state)

      Delete
    3. Concur for whatever number we're on

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  14. 1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The reunion between Black and Lupin was much more poignant in the book.

    2. The Martian. It was an ok movie, but not that good. The book was outstanding! So much funnier and more interesting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with both of these. I feel like Lupin was miscast. I did not like Thewlis in that role at all. And the Martian felt rushed and boring at the same time. The book was great though.

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    2. I go with The Martian. The book is awesome for those of us who do science, but the movie is "oh, look, he can fly like Ironman!"...

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  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  16. Starship Troopers is interesting, in that the director publicly stated that he hated the book. :)

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    Replies
    1. Seconding! The book is completely different... don't agree with its viewpoint, but very well done!

      Delete
  17. The Power of One. SERIOUSLY incredible book, abysmal film.

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  18. (1) We Can Remember It For You Wholesale - Phillip K. Dick. ("Total Recall")

    (2) The Running Man - Stephen King, as Richard Bachman. ("The Running Man")

    In both cases, the movies were abominations that abandoned the writing of the author and instead went completely 80's Tinsel Town. The screenwriters for each managed to use some of the key words from the original material (such as protagonist names), but otherwise got what I will charitably describe as, "lazy," trusting that Arnold Schwarzenegger's draw would automatically put butts in seats. And though he gave signature Schwarzenegger, he could not rescue these films from the steaming sewage the screenwriters vomited up.

    The original works, on the other hand, are very worth the reader's time.

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  19. 1. Clan of the Cave Bear: the book is fascinating and fun; the movie was heinous.

    2. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - The book allows so much insight into character thoughts showing Anikin’s spiral into darkness; something that clearly doesn’t come across no matter how many “deep thinking moments “ Hayden Christensen tried to show us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Regarding Star Wars, this calls for some clarification: can novelizations of movies (where the book was adapted from the screenplay, not the other way around) count, or only cases where the book was the original form of the story and the movie an inferior adaptation of it?

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    2. Second for Clan of the Cave Bear.

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    3. Star wars is not a real novel. The book came after the movie. It does not count I think

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  20. Replies
    1. Second The Hobbit for the merciful sake of Christ! This applies more so to the most recent horrible version of it. :-)

      Delete
  21. I, Robot. The film was shite.

    Jumper. The book was really good and went into fairly deep themes... the film was just an adventure. Enjoyable enough, but so disappointing.

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    Replies
    1. second iRobot for the sheer staggering hubris of thinking you could begin to translate that Corpus into a single action movie...

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. Huge second on I Robot. As an “inspired by” film it wasn’t *that* bad. But it wasn’t an adaptation. And it wasn’t really *good* either.

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  22. Nominating:
    1. Wuthering heights: the film was slow enough to be painful
    2. The scarlet letter

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    Replies
    1. Seconding Scarlet Letter. Changing the ending because "not that many people have read the book" tells me they had zero respect for the source material.

      Delete
  23. Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby

    The book is one of the seminal books about sport fandom.

    Both the original British movie adaptation and the 2005 Jimmy Fallon baseball-ified adaptation struggle to tell anything resembling a compelling story.

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  24. Erigon (I have a feeling this is a popular suggestion. That was just terribly terrible and the book had so many plots that were never picked up on. They turned a multi faced deep read into a good vs bad plus dragon story.)

    I’m afraid I have to put in the second as LOTRs Return of the King. Not because it wasn’t a good film but OH MY GOD THEY CUT OUT MY FAVOURITE PARTS OF THE ENTIRE SERIES. The Raising of the Shire was Completely missed. Character development skipped in favour of hours and hours of battle scenes.

    On a side note, if you do the opposite of this and have the ‘the film was actually much better’ post I’m definitely nominating Stardust.

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    Replies
    1. I second your LOTR comment, completely. Just said the same thing on FB.

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  25. Gone with the Wind. Margaret Mitchell spends pages and pages describing beauty and heartache and catastrophe that just can't be captured on film.

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  26. The Giver. It was my first dystopian novel as a kid and I was fascinated from beginning to end. The movie felt half hearted and Taylor Swift's appearance was incredibly distracting.

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    Replies
    1. I second The Giver. They turned it into a Hunger Games rip-off when it was the start of the genre.

      Delete
  27. I'm kind of shocked that no one has mentioned Dune! I am owed this was one of the foundational Classics of speculative fiction of any kind. I can't say I've watched all the movie adaptations, but the one or two that I've seen have been insanely horrible.

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  28. 1. Eragon by Christopher Paolini
    2. Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

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  29. I have to nominate The Mist of Avalon. I know it was a TV mini-series but the book was so much more than the dinky mini-series.

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    Replies
    1. I Second That!

      The Mini Series states at the beginning that Morgaine has been forever villified, but nothing that she does in the Mini Series comes close to painting her as evil.

      That and they glossed over so many important plot points of the novel.

      Delete
  30. The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. The movie failed to capture the beauty of the story, the heartbreak of it.

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  31. 1. The Lord of the Rings ffs. It is not really a hidden gem - it is even mentioned in the description - but, from my experience, people stopped reading it, and when they do have a look, the movie infuences what they think way too much.
    2. Dune. Yep.

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  32. 1. World War Z. The movie is decent on it's own, but it's complete garbage compated to the book.
    2. War of the Worlds. Because H.G. Wells always deserves love.

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  33. 1. Stardust
    2. Blue is the Warmest Color

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    Replies
    1. While I loved Stardust the book, I actually enjoyed the movie more, if you can believe it. Doesn't happen often.

      Delete
    2. Second Stardust, although it's one of the better Gaiman movies the prose version had more interesting subplots.

      Delete

  34. ...only two???

    Lately
    1) V for Vendetta - Watchmen was way closer to the GN, and I feel did a decent job. But V for Vendetta...
    Unfortunately, if you haven't read it, you don't realize that the book is way better.
    2) Eaters of the Dead (as 13th Warrior in movie form)

    Second/Third/Fourth etc on Eragon
    Seconding Twilight (should anyone mention it LOL)
    Second on Northern Lights (As Golden Compass in movie form, from the His Dark Materials trilogy - Philip Pullman)

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  35. 1. The Black Cauldron. The Chronicles of Prydain is one of the best YA fantasy series ever written, and Disney very loosely adapted the first two books into the single worst (artistically speaking; it's not as morally objectionable as "Song of the South") feature film in their entire animated canon, the picture that damned near killed off Disney Animation altogether.

    2. The Jungle Book. I actually walked out of the 1978 re-release or so with my dad, because he had read me the book, and freakin' Disney turned my favorite character, Kaa, not only into a villain but into a *silly* villain. Because obviously a snake couldn't possibly be a positive character; Kaa in the book is just as important a mentor and protector to Mowgli as Baloo and Bagheera.

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    Replies
    1. Is any Disney movie EVER better than the source material? Hunchback, Black Cauldron, Jungle Book, Three Musketeers.

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  36. 1) Prince Caspian (Chronicles of Narnia BOOK 2), C.S. Lewis

    2) Patriot Games, Tom Clancy

    Both of my nominations are for the same reason: a fundamental change of character for a main 'tagonist takes me out of the movies.

    In Caspian, Peter's actions are so fundamentally against how he thinks and acts in the book that it feels like they forgot that he had years to learn strategy and planning, something the book makes abundantly clear.

    And in what I feel is even a worse example, one of the main antagonists in Patriot Games is Miller, who goes from a cold, calculating irish terrorist struggling against his more hot-head tendencies towards a real, if demented, goal, to a straight-up psychopath that, at the end, seems to be killing for killing's sake. Ruined what I thought wasn't a bad movie up 'til that point.

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  37. World War Z. WORLD WAR Z. WORLD WAR Z!!!

    Seriously there are so many great options, but World War Z is the first and only book I immediately started rereading after finishing the final page, and what the film did to that novel was a travesty! The actual novel is full of amazing intricacies and world-building created from real-world cultures and politics, and it is obvious that Max Brooks put such a huge amount of research into it that it was clearly a labour of love, and then the film removes all the amazing things from it for a standard zombie film? Awful.

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  38. I also want to nominate Carrie by Stephen King. While most of the main story beats made it into the major adaptations (more the recent one than the earlier one), the book features a lot of expanded material explaining her abilities, as well as a much grander scope of the destruction wrought by them.

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  39. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Better than all three movie versions.

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  40. The Three Musketeers
    John Carter of Mars

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    Replies
    1. The Michael York/Charlton Heston treatment of the Musketeers was great fun, though. And not horribly twisted from the novels.

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  41. Eragon. Do not get me started on that horrible movie.

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  42. Congo - Michael Crichton
    The Mangler - Stephen King

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  43. Peter Pan. I love many of the movies, but none truly showcase the novel which is darker than any film adaptations

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  44. A Wrinkle in Time. So far--I have high hopes for the new one.

    The Time Traveler's Wife. Even though I liked the movie quite a bit.

    Hm, guess I have a theme going.

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    Replies
    1. I second A Wrinkle In Time. I'm not sure they can ever get that one right on screen. Some scenes are meant to be experienced in the mind. ;)

      Delete
  45. The Neverending Story. The book is one of my all-time favorites, but in the movie, the visuals sucked, the acting sucked worse, and they lopped off the ENTIRE SECOND HALF of the story, which was the best part! Should have called it the Ending-Far-Too-Early Story!

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  46. World War Z. What made the book great was the documentary-like presentation, with an interviewer (narrator) who explicitly downplayed his own importance in favour of the interviewees. The stories were varied and with many different viewpoints from all over the world, from army veterans to doctors to common civilians. The book was so intriguing because it truly felt like a documentary of an apocalyptic event. It felt real.

    So naturally, the movie has a predictable, linear, conventional story of a man trying to save his wife and daughter (because we can't ever have it the other way around), and that man is Brad-goddamned-Pitt. Of all possible actors they could have chpsen for the "anonymous" reporter, the one who thought he was the least important factor in the book, they cast Brad Pitt, so you already know the reporter's role has to be expanded to allow him to hog the camera as much as possible.

    Additionally, the book's zombies were the slow, lurching kind and this had a LOT to do with how mankind viewed them and dealt with them. They were terrifying because of their relentlessness, not so much their strength. Humans can run but will eventually grow fatigued, worn down by hunger, pain and stress until they can no longer escape. The zombies will keep on advancing, impervious to pain or hunger, never resting.

    The lesson mankind thus has to learn is one of patience, persistence and cooperation. Panic and running away will solve nothing, the zombies must be dispatched with a copl, calculated approach. It's a years-long process of rebuilding, showing us that there are no magic solutions to big, societal problems. Starting over means rethinking our old ways and coming up with sustainable, long-term solutions.

    In the movie, the zombies are fast, like a tidal wave washing over humanity. There is no time for psychological tension. They don't so much wear you down ovr time as attack in violent bursts, with shock and awe. The movie completely abolishes the lessons learned in the book, of solutions taking a long time for proper rebuilding, and goes with the typical Hollywood approach of simply blowing things up.

    In short, everything that made World War Z great was turned on its head in the movie, until the end result didn't resemble it in the slightest. The only thing they have in common is the title. It pains me to think some people may be avoiding the brilliant book because they saw the movie first and think the book must be boring, cliché tripe as well.

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  47. 1. The Lightning Thief. As a St. Louisan, I had so been looking forward to the kickass scene at the Arch which was summarily deleted.
    2. Every single filmed version of Dracula. Nobody has done it justice yet.
    3. Ditto for Little Women.
    4. The Hobbit, for which I mourn.

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  48. Remains of the day.

    I was surprised how different the movie's approach was. The book is about values, and how the butler found meaning in being a good butler. He suppresses his emotions because that's part of doing his job efficiently. There's an ethic to it. In the movie he just comes across as cold and it changes the entire meaning of the story.

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  49. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving—the book was dark and humorous and characteristically Irving, but the movie (Simon Birch, because Irving didn’t want the book title applied) just falls short.

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  50. Cell, by Stephen King; and
    The Stand, by Stephen King.

    I was going to note the Dark Tower by Stephen King, as it’s an abomination, but someone beat me to it. Seconded quite a few of the other posts!

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    Replies
    1. Second "The Stand". (I haven't seen the movie adaptation of Cell.)

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  51. Jane Eyre. I loved the Jane Eyre movie, but it's impossible to relay Jane's brilliant internal dialog on screen. No movie will ever capture that complexity in the right way.

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  52. 1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It managed to capture almost none of the humor of the book.

    2. Marvel's Civil War. They turned the deep questions of vigilantism and power from the graphic novel and replaced it with a weird squabble and convuluting a backstory to make the squabble work.

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    Replies
    1. I second the Hitchhiker's Guide! I came searching through the comments just to find this before posting myself :)

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    2. Yes, the Hitchhiker's Guide! Seconded

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    3. I'm guessing that I'm fourthing Hitch-hikers Guide.

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    4. Second The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

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  53. 1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
    2. The Secret Garden

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  54. Anna SH said...
    I nominate
    - Game of thrones
    - Inkheart
    - PS I love you
    - EVERY SINGLE count of monte christo

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  55. Nominating:
    Love in the Time of Cholera
    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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  56. Shane - if you read it you know

    Catch 22

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  57. Child 44. They completely change the ending which ruins the whole plot. Bloody good film though.



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  58. Nominating Cat in the Hat (is there a worse movie?) and Ella Enchanted.

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    Replies
    1. Seconding Cat in the Hat. And I didn't even like the book.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  59. 1. Let the right on in. The film is in no way a bad film. The book is just gorgeous in its many, many voices and its unglorified disgusting cruelty.

    2. The devil wears Prada. The book depicts someone getting increasingly seduced by the system of her workplace with none of her friends or family able to understand. The film is about Merryl Streep being delighfully evil. That's fine, but far less interesting.

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  60. Dracula. It hasn’t been filmed properly yet.
    Little Women.

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  61. 1. Princess Bride by William Goldman. I read the book first. Was exited to see the film. Was extremely disappointed. Mind you that was somewhere in the middle of 2000. I guess the eighties vibe didn't help in the matter. At time it feels more like a play than a film. And though the film is generally praised, it could've been so, so much more. It didn't come close to the greatness of the book.

    2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest by Ken Kesey. Again a critically acclaimed film but I just didn't like it. Of course the film is quite different from the book. It's more or less even a different story and I just couldn't bring myself to like Nickholson's character.

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  62. Forrest Gump by Winston Groom

    I understand the social relevancy of the movie and how the book went overboard blah blah blah. The book was INFINITELY better. He and Jenny got it on like rabbits and I'll never forgive the directors for ruining Lieutenant Dan.

    Choke by Chuck Pala...the Fight Club guy.

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    Replies
    1. I second Forrest Gump. That would've been my third choice. And true. In the book Gump wasn't just one "happy accident" after another. He kicked ass and had more personality than his character in the film.

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  63. The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (the tv adaptation is called Legend of the Seeker)

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  64. 1. The Fletch books, by Gregory McDonald. All aspiring writers should read and study how McDonald constructs these funny, emotionally complex but sparely written novels. Go and see how he makes a few lines of dialogue do the work of a page of exposition, how he trusts the reader to weave together the economically provided threads of worldbuilding into a tough, beautiful fabric. Read the novels, too. My favourite among them, A World Too Wide.

    2. Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones. Not to disparage the wonderful Miyazaki adaptation, but the book is far more complex and fascinating.

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  65. Hunger Games (the first book). The film isn't that bad as film, but it fails to capture how young the characters actually were, something I believe to be a major thing in the novels.

    Also the Moomin books, though it's a television series and not a movie, to be specific. The problem is that they turned the books, which had a lot of depth and reflection over real life in them and a constant development, into a children's show. I sadly don't think anyone really knows how serious the series (of books) became in the end.

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  66. 1) The Shining. Stanley Kubriks' film had practically nothing that resembled the book.

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  67. First - The Dark Tower - Stephen King
    Second - The Cider House Rules - John Irving (despite Charlize Theron's amazingly gorgeous back, the movie came nowhere near the novel)

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  68. First -- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Dumbledore's beautiful speech to the students of all the schools is delivered to just Harry in the movie. By doing so, it's impact is lessened.
    Second -- The Once and Future King

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  69. The Tale of Despereaux. Adored the book. The movie basically shared a name and an animal. :(
    The Hogfather - no Pratchett adaptation will likely ever do justice.
    Seconding The Giver.

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  70. 1) The Percy Jackson movies were a great disappointment. Among other things, they left out an important minor character (Clarisse) from the first movie and so had to shoehorn her into the next movie. They couldn't even get Annabeth's hair color right.

    2) The Guardians of Ga'Hoole children's book series was distorted into the Legends of the Guardians: Owls of Ga'Hoole movie. The movie is basically the first five books stuffed into a blender, broken down into individual plot points, and then dumped out to produce a sped-up and mixed-around version of a slightly similar plot with characters that have the same names as those in the books. Very disappointing.

    3) The Eragon movie was way off, too. Soundtrack was decent, though, but not good enough to redeem the movie.

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  71. Just to be contrary, since the movie technically came out first, I nominate:

    Star Trek: The Motion Picture
    Novelization by Gene Roddenberry
    (based on the screenplay by Harold Livingston and the story by Alan Dean Foster)

    The first Star Trek movie is often regarded as one of the worst Trek movies (except possibly Final Frontier with the weird Vulcan taking them to the centre of the galaxy). The book however actually redeems the story, adds useful subplots and insight to the characters (particularly the new ones, Decker and Ilia, but also Spock). It is also often considered canonical since it was written by Star Trek's creator. As the best selling feature, you dont have to sit through the extensive title credits and the prolonged scene where they approach the ship very, very, slowly...

    Not sure if this will get seconded since it's a late nomination, but at least wanted to share for people who might not normally read post-production film novelizations.

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  72. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.I was really disappointed when they reduced the amount of mayhem the twins left when they left the school.

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  73. 1. GAME OF THRONES!!! The books are sooooo much more in depth.
    2. Percy Jackson - The Lightning Thief. The movie - WTF? They changed vital story lines to make it more "Hollywood'.

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  74. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.
    Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief.

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