Poll: Adaption

[ZenMonkey47]

Legend of the Seeker and the upcoming Dragonball movie have got me thinking. What kind of bronze orbs do these producers have to take something so loved, and completely and utterly change (if not butcher) it when adapting it for another media?

So how much deviation are you willing to put up with?

 

[xitel]

Well, small alterations aren't just permissible, their practically necessary. There are some things that you just can't do in different media types.

 

[Good morning blues]

Here's the thing - different media lend themselves to different stories and presentations. Purists (ie nerds) like to raise a fuss over minute changes from original source material, but these changes are almost always made in order to improve the adaptation. If the Doom movie had been completely true to the video game, it would have been one of the most boring things in the history of cinema. That said, many of the elements that they did change were unnecessary.

The most important thing is for an adaptation to stay true to the spirit of the original work. It can be abbreviated, expanded, changed in style, or have even greater changes, if need be. It's not how much is changed, it's what, specifically, is changed.

 

[Maet]

You think I care that the Bourne movies are totally different from the books? As long as the movie works, I don't care how much or how little has changed. If the movie is exactly the same as the book down to the last detail, then what's the point? Adaptation should be a fun and unique process.

 

[Rajin Cajun]

I think minor changes are perfectly fine as others have stated but you need to maintain a relatively close distance to the source material otherwise it goes really far off reservation and can descend into campy. Like Starship Troopers it was nothing like the Heinlein novel mostly because Paul Verhoeven only read a chapter of it and decided to film the film he originally wanted to do anyways but used Heinlein's novel because he was pressured by the studio. So what do we end up with? A movie that is basically a mockery of its novel counterpart the Troopers are idiotic, lack power armor and lack common sense. They also serve a now Nazi-esque society that is completely fascist and xenophobic. It was a far cry from the fairly democratic society that Heinlein portrayed in his novel.

 

[ZenMonkey47]

You think I care that the Bourne movies are totally different from the books? As long as the movie works, I don't care how much or how little has changed. If the movie is exactly the same as the book down to the last detail, then what's the point? Adaptation should be a fun and unique process.

Personally, I think the Bourne movies are an example of changes made for the sake of making changes.

Take, for example, the love interest. In the books we have Marie St Jacques a brilliant economist and in the movie we have Marie Helena Kreutz a vagabond hippie. Why? What was the point?

 

[Maet]

Personally, I think the Bourne movies are an example of changes made for the sake of making changes.

Take, for example, the love interest. In the books we have Marie St Jacques a brilliant economist and in the movie we have Marie Helena Kreutz a vagabond hippie. Why? What was the point?

So that way whenever they're together, the audience doesn't have to listen to them call each other "darling." Also, the distasteful rape scene is eliminated, and the plot is more efficient.

Marie was a bad character, and I'm glad they killed her off before Supremacy could hit it's stride. If they only used a tripod, the movie would've been perfect.

 

[Neosage]

Small changes, you have to edit the pacing and such.

 

[jim_doki]

its spelled AdaptATion. i think its important art gets out there. if the movies good enough to make someone watch the cartoon, then yay

 

[TheKaiserEcho]

I think it's necessary to make significant changes to alter something from one media to another. I think the best adaptations are films that make significant changes from the source. Take the Harry Potter movies for example. I think the 5th movie was probably the best, and it cut a significant amount of detail from the book, but it still had the right feeling. It had the essence of the story, and I think the essence matters much more than the details.

 

[hellthins]

Changes to suit medium and time constraints? Fine. However camp it might have been, the Dune Messiah/Children of Dune Sci-fi miniseries were still rather faithful to the books and didn't change much more than was needed. There were some aesthetics that got changed, and the plot was altered a little, but it was nothing horrific and it was still basically the same plot.

Then you have things like the Vampire: the Masquerade show which teabags the lore and some of the most basic mechanics of the settings, or the upcoming Dragonball movie which can't even get the species of the main character right. Then you have Doom which can't even come close to getting the back story right. I can get why they added in a team rather than a single person, all right. But what the hell were the reasons behind completely changing them from invading demons to mutants? It's not like the movie watching public hasn't seen that before.

I do give Starship Troopers a bit of a pass because it's funny and since it seems more to be a criticism of the perceived ultra-militarism of the book it's 'based on'. Still, it would have been better if it had just changed its name.

 

[Bagaloo]

I have to argue, whats the point in adaptations being virtually identical? If the Dragonball film followed the exact plot of a saga in the series, then why not just watch the series instead?

 

[Reaperman Wompa]

I say none outside what is needed to make it able to be made a movie. If they can't afford to do something or whatever then it's reasonable to go off the beaten path a bit, but there's no excuse for simply using a name for their own idea of what would make a better movie.

 

[Combined]

Small changes. Like punctuation and errors and some very minor story things. NOTHING ELSE.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

To be honest most books are best left as books. For this reason movies need to deviate. I like a movie that is good as a movie. Not just as a fanservice.

 

[Jharry5]

Some changes are necessary (sp?) when adating a piece of work for other media, otherwise it just wouldn't work.
But if too much is changed from the original source and it stops being an interpretation of the source material, and starts to be an 'inspired by' piece...

 

[jezz8me]

It worked for Alice in Wonderland even though the movie was not realy like the book all that much and both.

If it is good enough for Carol it is good enough for anyone.