The Movie vs. the Book

I liked A&D and haven't seen the movie yet, but I smiled at your "urgency" in the book - because in some ways that was what I thought was missing.  I skimmed over parts where poor Robert was thinking wayyy too hard - the pacing kind of threw me off.  But lots of people liked it better than The DaVinci Code...just goes to show.  I am looking forward to the movie though.

With the exception of The Goblet of Fire, I've really liked all the HP adaptations even when liberties are taken.  I liked Twilight as well - both the book and the movie, though I did see flaws in both.  And I love watching English classic adaptations.  The recent Jane Eyre (with Toby Stephens) is scrummy.  As is North and South with Richard Armitage.  I adored both the miniseries AND the book.

Donna

I'm of the mindset that if i haven't already read the book before the movie, then i always see the movie first and read the book later. Following a book with the movie adaptation back to back is always a disappointment to me since the book is almost always way better. I find in those cases where I read immediately before, that all I do the whole movie is compare it to the book and what is missing/added and can't enjoy the movie at all.

I saw Angels & Demons a couple weeks ago (Mem Day weekend) and I really liked it. I read the book a few years ago, so they two were far enough apart i could enjoy the movie for itself and not as a comparison to the book. I thought they did a really good job keeping the tone of the book throughout the movie.

I've never been a big comic book fan but I love a lot of the movie (and in some cases, TV shows) adaptations. Love the Batman movies, Superman (and Smallville), X-Men, Spiderman. I loved League of Extraordinary Gentlemen too but then it had Sean Connery in it and that was enough for me. LOL I love him and think he can pull just about any movie off if you ask me.

I think both the HP movies and books are awesome.   Yeah, they had to leave stuff out and change stuff a little to fit the 2 hour framework of a screenplay, but that is the way it has to be.   I think both are equally rocking and I appreciate both for their mediums.

 Green Mile...excellent book, excellent movie

The Mist...excellent short story, awesome movie

 Shawshank Redemption...awesome story, great great movie

See a pattern here?   Stephen King and Frank Darabont...when those two creative forces come together, it's magic.

True Blood, the TV series ROCKS big time, and the books are equally awesome.  But I never expected them to be the same...Alan Ball has his own vision for what the series should look like, and I LOVE his imagining.  And for me, it doesn't take away anything from the Charlaine's Sookie books.  Both excel in their respective mediums.

 Books that I think would rock as movies/TV series...  Hell Kat (yes it's my book!, so what!)  would be a kick ass movie,  Valorian Chroncles (yes, I know mine again), would rock as a Jerry Bruckheimer series... OCU: Necropolis...  I can see it now!!

I dont' know there are just some books that would completely lose their magic if transformed into a different medium, so I'm hard pressed to pick any that I think would translate well.

Truthfully, normally I hate movies out of books, so many just don't live up to the book.  One contemporary movie that I really enjoyed was Grishom's The Client.  The book was really funny in a lot of ways, but the movie went the other direction and upped the suspense, which worked as they each seemed a bit different.  Other movies that worked for me include the Pride and Prejudice series, some of the adaptions of Shakespeare's plays - love the one with Denzel.

I know a lot of people would love to see Nora's In Death series as a movie, but to me, I don't know who you would have play Roarke that could live up to all of our fantasies.

Cady

One of my favorite books as a teen was the Flowers in the Attic series but I have to say that it was the worst movie I've ever seen.  They messed up the story so much.

 I love True Blood and the Twlight movie was ok but I haven't read either of those books so I'm not a purist where those come in.  I did like both the Harry Potter books and movies though.

I think once I changed how I view movies-from-books, that made it a bit more enjoyable. Meaning, rather than think of "oh, they made a movie out of This Book" I now tend to think of it as "Hey, they made a movie inspired by This Book." I think that gives my brain a little more forgiveness in seeing what translates to the screen.

My husband and I just watched the ShoGun series recently, in which James Clavell was a major part of the movie-making process. It showed, since the series was five DVDs long and was truly indepth and left very few pages unturned. Instead of using the multiple POVs of the book, however, the movie told everything from the main character's view, which worked. We only knew what he knew, couldn't understand what he didn't understand. It was quite effective.

Now, Michele, I have to caution you... while I, too, enjoyed Sahara as a movie, my husband is a big reader of Clive Cussler's work and he swears they ruined everything in casting, storytelling, etc. I have no idea as I haven't read the book, but this is a topic he is quite talkative about and firm on. So, a word of caution, the book Sahara seems like it may be very different, but according to my hubby that's a very good thing. So who knows! Good luck diving in to the read.

Great topic!

made from books ~ especially if I've already read the book. 

But with the advent of the Harry Potter movies I was very impressed with how true to J.K. Rowling's stories the movies are.

Another series movies-from-books that I love are the Bourne movies.  Robert Ludlum has been a favourite author of mine for decades and decades; so of course when the first Matt Damon Bourne movie came out I was all aflutter.  How would they do?
Well, they changed it... BUT the story stayed very true to the spirit of Mr. Ludlum's books so, yes, while there were a lot of changes it is a movie series that I've enjoyed a few times already... and will continue to do so.

But one movie-from-book for which I'll never forgive the director / main actor is Blood Work.  I rented it to watch with my husband because I love Michael Connelly's books... but as the story progressed I became more and more irate.  It's not enough that they didn't stay true to even the basics of the movie, but the completely and totally changed the ending!  I was so ticked off... actually I still get really pissed  about the whole thing.  I don't think they should have released it with the same name as the book 'cause they sure as shootin' didn't even read MCs excellent and taut thriller.