I often rant on to people (friends, family, the homeless, Jehovah's witnesses, etc) about how film writers, producers and directors shamelessly ruin timeless classic books by forcing their idea of what happens upon us and (after checking that this specific topic hasn't been done before... which it hasn't) I want to see if anyone agrees and if so join me in a rant about which of your favourite books have received the same treatment.
There are two primary film adaptations of books that really tick me off, the first being The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a timeless classic of a book which literally had me in stitches throughout (and slightly less to the point, so did all the sequals). However by the time the film adaptation came out I had already lost faith in book to film adaptations and so I was not expecting much, which is what I got.
The plot starts off to the letter and personally I thought the casting for Arther Dent was spot on, however after the equivilent of the first chapter it completely went off the plot of the book and I was left wandering "??????" and the portrayal of the other characters just wasn't right, I won't go into specifics to avoid spoilers for those who have yet to read the book (which I highly recommend).
The second is the film adaptation of Northern Lights (although the film is called the Golden Compass since that is what the American version of the book is called due to the fact that they changed "Alethiometer" to "Golden Compass" for some obscure reason). What can I say about it other than if you've read the book and watched the film you'll know what I'm talking about, if not then you'll have to read the book first to truely appreciate how crap the film is.
Now I'm going to address a few things that might get people annoyed themselves:
Firstly, I know that if you havn't read the books then the films in themselves are good films, but this topic isn't about that.
Secondly if you are in the corner of "you don't have to watch it if you don't like it" which just for the record I am myself I just want to let you know that I didn't have much choice when watching these films, why I hear you ask? One word: girlfriend.
There are two primary film adaptations of books that really tick me off, the first being The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a timeless classic of a book which literally had me in stitches throughout (and slightly less to the point, so did all the sequals). However by the time the film adaptation came out I had already lost faith in book to film adaptations and so I was not expecting much, which is what I got.
The plot starts off to the letter and personally I thought the casting for Arther Dent was spot on, however after the equivilent of the first chapter it completely went off the plot of the book and I was left wandering "??????" and the portrayal of the other characters just wasn't right, I won't go into specifics to avoid spoilers for those who have yet to read the book (which I highly recommend).
The second is the film adaptation of Northern Lights (although the film is called the Golden Compass since that is what the American version of the book is called due to the fact that they changed "Alethiometer" to "Golden Compass" for some obscure reason). What can I say about it other than if you've read the book and watched the film you'll know what I'm talking about, if not then you'll have to read the book first to truely appreciate how crap the film is.
Now I'm going to address a few things that might get people annoyed themselves:
Firstly, I know that if you havn't read the books then the films in themselves are good films, but this topic isn't about that.
Secondly if you are in the corner of "you don't have to watch it if you don't like it" which just for the record I am myself I just want to let you know that I didn't have much choice when watching these films, why I hear you ask? One word: girlfriend.
