Ten books that were better off on paper
- Thread starter Krug
- Start date
I like the book and the film of Starship Troopers, but they are pretty much opposites in viewpoints. Personally, I think they complement one another.
I'd have liked "I Robot" a lot more if it had been called something else.
I haven't seen the film of "I am Legend" for the same reason - it would only annoy me. (It's not on their list, but it would appear on my own list.)
Minority Report didn't bother me so much. Its pretty much a given with Philip K Dick's stories that you have to play around with them in order to have a film which makes any kind of sense. I don't imagine the author would have minded - he did it himself all the time.
In fairness, I am sure we could make a list of bad books which made good films. The French Connection comes to mind.
I'd have liked "I Robot" a lot more if it had been called something else.
I haven't seen the film of "I am Legend" for the same reason - it would only annoy me. (It's not on their list, but it would appear on my own list.)
Minority Report didn't bother me so much. Its pretty much a given with Philip K Dick's stories that you have to play around with them in order to have a film which makes any kind of sense. I don't imagine the author would have minded - he did it himself all the time.
In fairness, I am sure we could make a list of bad books which made good films. The French Connection comes to mind.
Dog Moon
Adventurer
Huh, I actually liked I, Robot and Minority Report, though I've never actually read the books. As for Starship Troopers, I enjoyed both the book and the movie, though for two very different reasons. Had I read the book first however, I might not have liked the movie as much, I think...
Only other one I saw on that list was the Postman and that was just...I don't know, blah.
Only other one I saw on that list was the Postman and that was just...I don't know, blah.
Silver Moon
Adventurer
Good list. Not Sci-Fi/Fantasy, but one movie that I will always categorize as Great Book, Mediocre Movie is "First Blood". I'm glad I read the book first. Not only did Sly Stallone ruin the John Rambo character but changing the setting from the deep South during the Vietnam war to the Pacific Northwest several years after the war ended changed the whole context of the story.
Brown Jenkin
First Post
They left off my all time worst movie, and one that is considered a litterary classic. The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore. No matter how low your expectations are DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE, you will need a time machine to get the 2 hours back and a metaphorical hot poker to burn the movie out of your mind.
Fallen Seraph
First Post
While I agree with the list. I have to say V and Minority Report are still good movies even if they don't capture what the original source did.
I am surprised though under Dune there was no mention of the mini-series. This I feel is the closest we will get to having Dune in a film-format. The follow-up Children of Dune is also great.
I am surprised though under Dune there was no mention of the mini-series. This I feel is the closest we will get to having Dune in a film-format. The follow-up Children of Dune is also great.
The reason I, Robot is on that list is that the movie falls into the mindset that Isaac Asimov intentionally avoided. In the preface to one of his books, Asimov explained that up until he wrote his Robot stories, robots in Science Fiction took only two roles: Robot as pathos (unusual sympathetic characters, I can't remember all of the details), and robot as menace (inherently bad guys). Trying to go against that trend, Asimov wrote the stories in I, Robot to depict robots as industrial workers that are a common part of daily life. All of the short stories in I, Robot are about smoothing out the bugs in the working relationship between humans and robots.
The whole idea that robots try to overthrow humanity (as they do in the movie) is the most common form of robots as menace. It is a flat contradiction of the basic concept behind Isaac Asimov's stories.
In a nut shell, that is why I could ever bring myself to watch the movie. The only part I have watched is the big action sequence at the end.
