Movies that are better than the novels they are based on

[Hypersmurf]

The N...

The N...

Oh, I give up. I was going to post 'The Neverending Story II' as a joke, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

-Hyp.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I know it's all opinion, but I found the original novel Dracula far better than the Coppola's version (which I found very disapponting).

I also thought the Howling book was far better that the movie, though neither was stellar.

For my picks, I'd say Jurassic Park.
Blade Runner (better than the story it comes from, but in fairness, they are quite different in the way they develop).
The Princess Bride.
Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (but hey, Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay, so in effect, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an earlier draft of the work).

I thought Jurassic Park was a better story in the book, but the visuals on the movie were mindblowing at the time.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

Hunt for Red October

While the best of Clancy's books that I've read, still a pretty wretched waste of trees. Movie was at least fun, though, mainly thanks to Connery.

 

[Chain Lightning]

I disagree on the "Silence of the Lambs" comments. A lot of movies were either much better or much worse than the novel. "Silence of the Lambs" is the only one I can think of that maintained its quality almost exactly. I found reading the book and watching the movie to be an almost identical experience.

I'll join KenM on the whole "Lord of the Rings "thing too. While I felt that Jackson did do a lot wrong things (or rather a lot of little things wrong quite often), his over-all movie version of LotR was a much better experience than the books.

There are things that I love in the book more than the movie (like the scene with Eowyn vs. Witchking), but for the most part . . . the books have more annoying things that I don't like than the movies do.

Okay, that aside, I'll throw in another odd book to movie translation from left field. I enjoyed "Predator" more than the mini-novel "Hunter". Although they're very close - - except in the book, the alien was a shape-shifter lizard thing. And you got to see his spaceship at the end.

And even though the "Sound of Thunder" movie isn't out yet, the trailer looks like a really bad movie. But I did like the little short story by Ray Bradbury.

 

[Silver Moon]

The Wizard of Oz. I've read all of L. Frank Baum's books, and they are very good but a little weird. The 1939 Movie however was fantastic.

 

[kingamy]

Karate Kid 2

(I'm kidding; I just found the "novelization" of that movie when I was cleaning out some of my old junk out of my parents' house the other day)

For the record, I have a hard time directly comparing the LotR books and movies. They are entirely different things for me, but each are my favourite in their own medium.

It's like comparing eating pumpkin pie with playing hockey. Both are wicked awesome, but how do you measure them quantitatively?

kingamy

 

[Vigilance]

Godfather for me too. The books were flat out juvenile in places. I mean who gives a **** how well Sonny is endowed?

However I think movies and books are very tough to compare which is why a movie MUST change considerably from any book its based on. They are different media completely.

Now plays and movies, that's a slightly different story.

But whether its a lot better or a lot worse a movie is just going to be different.

For instance a lot of Heinlein fans derided Starship Troopers. But would anyone have been able to stay AWAKE through a movie filled with expositions on political and military theory?

Not me.

Chuck

 

[Maerdwyn]

Total Recall
Big Fish
A Christmas Story

 

[TheBadElf]

You guys already beat me to the only movies that I honestly thought were better than the books...Princess Bride, Silence of the Lambs, and LOTR.

 

[Dark Jezter]

I'm pleasently surprised by this thread; we've already had several people say that the LotR movies are better than the novels, and so far no Tolkienophiles have shown up to accuse them of being stupid and tasteless. Just another reason why ENWorld is the greatest internet community I've ever been a part of.