CyanidePie Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Was having this conversation with a friend and he mentioned Fight Club and The Bourne movies as being better than their book counterparts but I have not read any of those books. The one I thought of immediately was Jurassic Park. It is astounding to me how mind-numbing and lifeless that book is compared to the movie. Steven Spielberg made a magical movie that inspired my love of cinema and expanded my imagination. It was full of wonder and excitement and discovery. Followed by such terror and regret and soul-crushing sadness for these people and this lovable old billionaire who had worked towards and realized a childhood dream only to watch it crumble and destroy peoples' lives in the process. Michael Crichton on the other hand, wrote what can only be described as a methodically soulless scientific dissertation on the spacial patterns and behavioral instincts of genetically modified creatures that NEVER existed before, therefore making all of the theorizing on and observation of said patterns and behaviors completely non-applicable to actual dinosaurs and ultimately fucking pointless to read about. Also, there's a lot of talk about the mundane legalese behind opening up a theme park. Like, pages and pages of the shit. There is ZERO wonder or amazement in any of the characters, they're all just robots who have time to contemplate the meaning behind these creations, even when one of them is lying there getting eaten. Where every other person on earth would be thinking "OHFUCKOHFUCKOHFUCK." It is absolutely bizarre that a beloved action-packed movie was made from whateverthefuck that book was. I can only imagine that it was all based on the concept, and the rest was due solely to the brilliance of Steven Spielberg's vision for what it should have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterbound Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Fight Club Fear and Loathing Children of Men Dr. Stranglove The Godfather The Shining 2001 Apocalypse Now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyenon15 Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Interview with a Vampire. I tried to read the ot recently and the movie is way better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
all swedes are racist Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Children of Men Fucking yes, thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
all swedes are racist Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 And let me add Blade Runner Total Recall And with a giant fucking asterisk, Naked Lunch Ps, I'm just gonna say it: Millers Crossing (Going on the argument the film is more firmly grounded in "the Glass Key" than "Red Harvest" etc) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murgle Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Secret Garden, because the visuals were more beautiful than words could describe. A Little Princess, because it was better, and the servant girl became her sister at the end instead of a glorified personal maid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Flashheart Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 This covers most of the best examples. Fight Club Fear and Loathing Children of Men Dr. Stranglove The Godfather The Shining 2001 Apocalypse Now. Forrest Gump. Neither is great but the book is total shit. Misery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ramsay B. Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 The one that comes to mind is The Road. The book was ok but I had to force my way through a lot of it and I just enjoyed the movie a lot more. I also thought Jurrasic Park the book was better than the movie but I did like the movie too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Arryn Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Last of the Mohicans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wolf Smith Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Interview with a Vampire. I tried to read the ot recently and the movie is way better No F-ing way. While a very good movie, it leaves out too many things that are important to the series as a whole. Too bad they never could do the other books justices. I also like Jurassic Park and Forrest Gump the books better the film again there was so much that they cut, that was important to the story as a whole. And yes I read Gump and Co. I would say the film, Blade Runner did a lot of things better then the book. To take it a step further, half of the films based off of RKD's work improved/updated his work. The other half failed to live up to his ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Marquis de Leech Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Fight Club Fear and Loathing Children of Men Dr. Stranglove The Godfather The Shining 2001 Apocalypse Now. The Godfather is the obvious one. I'm not sure if 2001 counts as a movie based on a book, since Clarke wrote the book (though not the original short story) co-currently with the script. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HexMachina Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Stardust The James Bond films (well, some of them at least. Only read a couple of the books) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veltigar Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 The obvious modern examples is 50 Shades Of Grey. As someone who has only seen snippets of the film and read a few extracts of the novel, surely the film has got to be a lot better. Plus, the torture (of being exposed to the inane story) ends faster with the film. Last of the Mohicans. :bowdown: The one that comes to mind is The Road. The book was ok but I had to force my way through a lot of it and I just enjoyed the movie a lot more. Really? I prefer the book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Antony Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Silence of the Lambs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Howdyphillip Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Fight Club - Better movie Fear and Loathing - Better book Children of Men - Better movie Dr. Stranglove - Better movie (Kubrik's only better adaptation) The Godfather - Better movie The Shining - Much better book 2001 - Much better book Apocalypse Now. - closest to a tie, but the movie has more cultural importance. The one that absolutely tops my list is Dancing with Wolves. The book was dry and the main character was highly unlikable. runner up to me is Forest Gump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyoshi Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 The Bourne Trilogy. The books dragged. I don't remember finishing the third one, I like to think I did...maybe. Anyway, the first three movies are better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maithanet Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 Totally disagree on Jurassic Park and The Road. I recently read Nothing Lasts Forever (which became Die Hard) and Children of Men. Both are better movies than books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyanidePie Posted August 12, 2015 Author Share Posted August 12, 2015 How bad a book or movie is is totally subjective, so I don't know how I can be exaggerating. There are spurts here and there in Jurassic Park that are genuinely interesting, and the way they find out that the dinosaurs are breeding is much more tense and interesting than the movie where Alan just finds dinosaur eggs but other than that it is one of the worst books I've ever read. There are so many parts where action is happening and it's so horribly described that it takes multiple times reading it to figure out what the hell is going on, and when you can understand the action that's taking place, it's written in such a boring way that you just don't care. I lost count how many times I was just sitting there going "Holy shit why are you writing this scene this way???" Nothing in the book is scary at all, it's just described in the most literal prose possible, as if you had a robot describe Jurassic Park the movie but without the ability to understand human emotion. There are no likable characters in the book at all, especially John Hammond who is just an insufferable asshole. I just felt angry after reading that book, and am thoroughly glad that it is not the work that's most associated with the Jurassic Park property. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drawkcabi Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 The Shawshank Redemption The Green Mile And Stand By Me. Pretty much most movies from a Stephen King short story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maithanet Posted August 12, 2015 Share Posted August 12, 2015 How bad a book or movie is is totally subjective, so I don't know how I can be exaggerating. There are spurts here and there in Jurassic Park that are genuinely interesting, and the way they find out that the dinosaurs are breeding is much more tense and interesting than the movie where Alan just finds dinosaur eggs but other than that it is one of the worst books I've ever read. There are so many parts where action is happening and it's so horribly described that it takes multiple times reading it to figure out what the hell is going on, and when you can understand the action that's taking place, it's written in such a boring way that you just don't care. I lost count how many times I was just sitting there going "Holy shit why are you writing this scene this way???" Nothing in the book is scary at all, it's just described in the most literal prose possible, as if you had a robot describe Jurassic Park the movie but without the ability to understand human emotion. There are no likable characters in the book at all, especially John Hammond who is just an insufferable asshole. I just felt angry after reading that book, and am thoroughly glad that it is not the work that's most associated with the Jurassic Park property. There are a bunch of great scenes in the book that aren't even in the movie. The entire river/raft plotline is taken out, and that has some great moments, like when the Tyrannosaur wades into the lake after them and the lake isn't deep enough to submerge her, so she's just like an alligator with only her head sticking up. When the raft comes to a waterfall and the Tyrannosaur is waiting for them at the bottom. When the T-rex has his tongue wrapped around Tim and is dragging him into her mouth. When Muldoon and Gennaro (who's character is much better in the book) confront the velociraptors with their rocket launcher. When the shit hits the fan and Muldoon has to back into wedge himself into a concrete pipe with raptors snarling at him. When Arnold then Gennaro then Grant have to go into the pitch black maintenance building knowing that raptors are somewhere inside. I feel like I could go on, but Jurassic Park is a very exciting and action packed book. The movie does a few scenes very well (namely, the first reveal of the Brontosaurus, the TRex attacking the cars, and the kitchen scene), but on the whole, it is a Spielberg movie, for good and bad. It's a very different animal from the book, and both are good in their own way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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