I mean, I liked the Harry Potter and LotR/Hobbit movies significantly more than the books. And these are book series I read multiple times as a child.

On the other hand, World War Z was awful. It would have been cheaper, easier, and more accurate to make a mockumentary about life after the zombie apocalypse.

One thing I think we can all agree on though is that 90% of videogame adaptations are awful,

First off, let me say that I agree with your major points. Cutting for time, Peter Jackson being bad at this, etc. All of your points are well made. We could argue about the merits of some of the changes, but that is not what I want to talk about.

What I would like to point out is that there is an element missing in this discussion. And that is Medium. We see a fairly large number of Book to Movie adaptations, and those are usually the big names. However, we also have Graphic Novels, Television shows, and the occasional Musical Theatre adaptation. Each of these mediums have their strengths and their weaknesses.

Books: You want information and detail? Books have that in spades. You want a story that you can experience in less than 4 hours? Not so much. A book can be as long as the author wants because you can put it down if you need to go to work or something.

Movies: Want to experience an epic story in less than 4 hours? Done and done. Want to know what your characters are thinking? Not so good for that. Movies are great for a condensed story, and for being allowing you to see the action. However, they come with a time limit, so something is going to have to go.

TV Show: Want a half-way point between movies at books? This is the medium for you. TV shows, whether full or mini series, can have greater length than movies, while still keeping many of the benefits. They also allow for more detail, though not as much as books.

Graphic Novels: Allow for the length that books enjoy, though somewhat less detail, while still allowing you to see what is going on.

Musicals: I don't even know.



So, the big problem, I feel, is that people do not consider the medium when adapting a book. If you go from a book to a movie, you are going from the least compressed medium to the most compressed. The change is not likely to be smooth unless you really know what you are doing. Book to TV, however, is going from the least compressed to a moderately compressed medium. The transition is likely to be more forgiving.

If they decide to go straight from book to video, then some big changes might be called for. For example, I have a friend who absolutely hated the recent adaptation of World War Z, because it was nothing like the book. When I read the book, I couldn't understand her hatred. It was unreasonable to expect that the movie would be a guy interviewing 30-ish people after the Zombie War. There wasn't the time, and there wasn't any good way to do it. An adaptation would have been terrible. So they didn't make one. They made a movie inspired by the book. In order to make a true adaptation, they would have had to make it into a mini-series style mockumentary.

There is something to be said for just not making something, though. I have several books/series that I think would make terrible movies.

-Phobos

There are two sides to this, which I'm not sure you're acknowledging (if you are, sorry for assuming).

The first side:

I agree with everything you said about Percy Jackson. I was so mad about that movie. Sea of Monsters was marginally better, but still pretty bad. I really think in this case, they let money dictate creative decisions and now it's screwing them, because they alienated all the fans.

And I have to say, the more I think about it, the more I don't like the Star Trek reboot. Too many lens flares, too sexist, too much action. Also, comparing it to DS9, which I'm about halfway through at the moment, is no contest. And DS9's the one with less fans. *shakes head*

And sequels can be very bad, especially when the movie was meant as a stand alone. So I too am wary of them.

However...

The other side:

I think a lot of these examples are actually really good adaptations. LOTR changed things and added things, yes, but those things were (for the most part) good. Arwen gets character development. The Ring tempts everyone. The long hobbit birthday party gets trimmed down. People actually talk like people talk. I was annoyed at some of the overly long fight scenes in ROTK, though, and would have liked to see more Faramir/Eowyn and the "hands of a king are the hands of a healer" scene. But overall, I think they're quite good.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader was a very episodic book. It would have worked better as perhaps a miniseries. To adapt it to a movie, they had to give it an overarching plotline. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember it working.

The Hobbit - well, three parts is a bit much, but the book is, on the whole, unimpressive cinematically. I was rereading it in preparation for the movie and was actually craving eggs and bacon because Bilbo mentioned them so much. That's not the tone you want for a movie that's set in the same 'verse as LOTR. So I understand why they did a lot of what they did. They went a bit far (like I said, three parts), but they had to do something.

And also, some sequels are good. The Wrath of Khan is better that The Motion Picture. Everyone I've talked to loves Iron Man 3. TNG, DS9, and Voyager are excellent series.

And we can all agree that the Harry Potter and Hunger Games adaptations are (at least so far with Hunger Games) really good? They have their flaws, but so do everything.


I guess what I'm trying to say here is that I don't see a trend towards making bad adaptations and sequels. There are lots of bad sequels and adaptations, but there are also good ones, and I really can't say that there are more or less, or that the trend swings one way or another.

...it's becausthey think it won't be exciting enough.
I was unhappy with PJ too. Annabeth's supposed to be BLOND, for crying out loud!
Don't get me started on Mr Popper's Penguins...

... That goes along the lines of "If you wanted to watch an accurate adaption of a book, go read the book!". Personally though, its a flimsy excuse, but somehow a passable one at that.

As much as I want to expand on my argument, I can't seem to find a movie that had to make changes for the sake of making changes. I would've used Coraline as a point, but Wybie was made so that the movie doesn't turn into Monologue: The Movie.