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 CJ9 years ago
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. – ProtoCanon9 years ago
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. – ainjelwings8 years ago
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. – Tarben8 years ago
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 – hitesharora8 years ago
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? – Helga1018 years ago