danielhageman

Contributing writer for The Artifice.

Junior Contributor I

?

Articles
0
Featured
0
Comments
2

Ext. Comments
2
Processed
0
Revisions
0

Topics
1
Topics Taken
0
Notes
2

Topics Proc.
0
Topics Rev.
0

Points
30
Rank
X
Score
18

Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.

Latest Topics

film

Critiques of Film Adaptations

Write this topic

The Movie Sucked Because the Book Was Better?

Everyone has heard the cliche review of just about any movie based off of a novel: "The book was so much better.." At what point can a film be judged in its own right, and at what point do the inspirations, sometimes inherently limiting what the audience deems as acceptable, deserve consideration? Many films often are portrayed in a negative light because of variations from the original inspiration, often noticed by the biased viewer, but does that actually make the standalone film poor in its own nature?

I like this topic immediately. Future notes can definitely include examples (Harry Potter, LOTR as successful adaptation stories vs Eragon, Great Gatsby). I've also found this CBS link to help extrapolate samples: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-movie-adaptations-gone-girl-hunger-games-harry-potter-twilight-great-gatsby/ The article might take shape like: defining the separate entities of literature and cinema, validating ways in which the two overlap, and then defending the creative liberties and separations of various forms of entertainment as distinctly different and independently operating. – Piper CJ 9 years ago
3
A good case study could be the 2012 adaptation of Anna Karenina, which utterly fails as an effective adaptation of the novel, but triumphs as a work of cinematic art in its own right. – ProtoCanon 9 years ago
2
I love this topic as well. I think it's important to bring up that oftentimes, the differences between forms of media are ignored by the consumers. Something that is interesting to read might not be interesting to view; different forms of media have different modes of representation. – ainjelwings 8 years ago
1
Ender's Game is another great example of the movie being a success in its own medium, but suffering because fans prefer the book. So much depth has to be cut because of the limited scope of a feature film, and the novel has a lot of internal monologue and exploration, but I feel the movie is still worth watching. – Tarben 8 years ago
1
Its getting common- I guess all Harry Potter movies-though they were wonderful, but for book readers was a complete no no. I would say LOTR was way better and even the dragon Eragon- was also a complete no no – hitesharora 8 years ago
0
There is a lot of critique of LOTR among the most die-hard fans of the books. One of the topics that could be touched upon in the article is, with an epic like LOTR, would a TV series be a more suitable medium? – Helga101 8 years ago
0

Sorry, no tides are available. Please update the filter.

Latest Comments

Nice article! I wondered if you could elaborate on your thoughts on whether or not this portrayal is surprising to you, and what your reaction/article would have been had it been written in a different time period as oppose to in retrospect?

To me, it seems that media and entertainment, especially in regards to television more so than film, since extended over a longer, more thorough time period allowing viewers to connect more so to characters, the goal is to actually enable viewers to directly relate to the actors, and in the case of your article including but not limited to, the “situational” aspect of situational comedy.

I guess what I wonder is how rare is it for a program to not actually reflect the norms of a certain society given such a goal. And, is it possible to reflect those norms, allow viewers to relate, and not reinforce those norms, which in this case we can see today as ‘patriarchal’?

I find it difficult to speculate as to what social norms we aspire to currently that will be looked on so differently (and perhaps in a negative light) in the future. That’s just how human morality and our output of media/entertainment business seem to evolve :/

Reinforcing the Traditional Patriarchal ideologies through Situation Comedies

This is why I think there is such a beauty to teaser trailers. I too try my best to avoid trailers of movies before I have seen them, especially if it’s within a few months of premiere. Of course you want to try and avoid ratings as well (every movie is better at its midnight premiere), but unfortunately we can’t all just see any and every movie we want, and we sometimes need more than just director and cast to decide if its something of interest. I too have always been a critic of comedy trailers, for that reason it’s my least favorite genre to see in theaters, and the least necessary for that matter. Other people, whose senses of humor don’t line up with your own, can really take away from your personal enjoyment of the film, especially if they are dying from the jokes you saw in the trailer a million times. But at the same time, trailers are a necessary aspect of promotion in modern day, and how can a comedy have a successful trailer without some of the better jokes included? Like in any film genre, it’s just a matter of finding the balance of how much to give the audience to make them want more.

Time to Trim Trailers? The Death of Surprise in Modern Hollywood