Best and worst changes in an movie adaption of a comic book

[The Overlord]

What are best and worst changes made in an movie adaption of a comic book? Some of the changes I like is taking some rather lame or one dimensional villains and giving them better motives or more of fleshed out personality. I greatly prefer movie Whiplash over comic book Whiplash and I like the sympathetic take they give Loki in Thor.

Some of the changes I don't like is where they take a villain and make him or her less interesting or menacing in the process. Movie Doom being a corporate slime ball rather then a king was pretty lame, likewise Lex Luthor engaging in real estate scams in the movies.

 

[Nathan]

Making Sandman Uncle Ben's killer and way too sympathetic, because all the things he did were for the sake of his sick daughter. He wasn't much of a villain anymore, just a guy who always happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[The Overlord]

Making Sandman Uncle Ben's killer and way too sympathetic, because all the things he did were for the sake of his sick daughter. He wasn't much of a villain anymore, just a guy who always happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I didn't have a problem with Sandman being more sympathetic, there have been hints of that comic and just making him a thug like he was in his first few appearances wouldn't have made for a very interesting villain. However making Sandman the guy who killed Uncle Ben is pretty unforgivable.

 

[Godzilla2014]

For the best changes, I would say the amendment of Batman's origin in Batman Begins. It really added a lot of depth and believability to Bruce Wayne's journey to becoming Batman. For example, his initial plotting to get revenge on Joe Chill by murdering him was much more believable than him swearing to become a masked crimefighter right after his parents are murdered. I liked that Batman Begins addresses the question of, "Why didn't Bruce Wayne just kill Joe Chill instead of becoming a vigilante?" I think the attempted murder it also added to the reason for Batman to not use guns: It's not because his parents were murdered using one, but it may remind of him when he nearly crossed the line into being consumed by revenge, and only fate's intervention by the assassin saved him. It really set up many important facets of the character, like his morals and principles, and his methods. Having Ra's al Ghul train him also heightened the sort-of father/son relationship between them, as did changing Ra's into a vigilante terrorist rather than an ecoterrorist.

 

[WarBlade]

Worst: Replacing Deacon Frost with Aaron Thorne and then calling him Deacon Frost... WTF???

Worst: Nightstalkers.

Worst: Giving Johhny Blaze a penchant for guzzling jelly beans from martini glasses.

There have been a few let-downs really. It's hard to choose.

Best: Handing the face of SHIELD over to the mighty, SON OF COUL!

 

[Breogan]

Giving Superman pure flight (as apposed to leaping abilities) in the Fleischer films.

 

[The Morningstar]

The whole barakapool incident left a sour taste. Well, that whole movie did really.

The reinvention of Blade for the movies is probably the best ever change from the comics. One of the only times i'll accept changes in a movie carrying over to the comics.

 

[TruerToTheCore]

I didn't have a problem with Sandman being more sympathetic, there have been hints of that comic and just making him a thug like he was in his first few appearances wouldn't have made for a very interesting villain. However making Sandman the guy who killed Uncle Ben is pretty unforgivable.

The thing is, the Sandman was described as being on the FBI Top 10 Most Wanted List. To get there you have to be a pretty distorted person. So much for the sympathetic villain.

Yeah, the Sandman in Spider-Man 3 pretty much sucked, but I think the Raimi movies weren't even as good as they could have been, considering the source material. Some sick part of my brain even wants to see the Cannon Spider-Man...

 

[Rowsdower!]

Worsts:

- Bat Nipples, Bat Credit Card, Bane and damn near everything else from those horrible Shumacher movies

- The changes to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, particularly making Mina a one-note freak and the addition of Tom Sawyer.

- Making Harry Osborn's Green Goblin look like a rejected cyber-ninja from Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.

- Barakapool, but especially turning the "Merc with a Mouth" into the "Merc WITHOUT a Mouth." Seriously... were they TRYING to piss the fans off?

- Rachel Dawes. Not horrible, but certainly the weak link in Nolan's Batman films. If you're going to invent a character for the movie, at least make me give a crap about her.

 

[Superman2007]

I'd say Kick Ass worked better with Kick Ass getting the girl and he also seemed more heroic than he did in the graphic novel.

 

[The Morningstar]

I'd say the Kick Ass movie was leaps and bounds better than the comic as a whole.

 

[Rowsdower!]

Yeah, I thought the comic book Kick Ass was a little too cynical for it's own good. Sometimes I like things to work out for the hero.

Also, can't believe I forgot this. The absolutely worst changes of all time have to be Catwoman and Wanted. I don't need to get specific here, because those were two movies that had NOTHING to do with the comic books they were supposedly "based" upon.

Their only similarities:

Catwoman - the mask (sort of) and the name (though not her alter ego's name)
Wanted - the first two or three sentences of the main character's monologue, his name, and the "shoot the wings off a fly" thing.

And that's pretty much it. Bastardization at its best. F**k both of those movies.

The thing that puzzles me the most is why they even bothered to cite the Wanted graphic novel as an inspiration for the film. If you changed the title, the name of the main character and a couple lines, no one would have even made the connection to the comic. Hell, I don't even think Mark Millar would have.

 

[WhiteRat]

What are best and worst changes made in an movie adaption of a comic book? Some of the changes I like is taking some rather lame or one dimensional villains and giving them better motives or more of fleshed out personality. I greatly prefer movie Whiplash over comic book Whiplash and I like the sympathetic take they give Loki in Thor.

Some of the changes I don't like is where they take a villain and make him or her less interesting or menacing in the process. Movie Doom being a corporate slime ball rather then a king was pretty lame, likewise Lex Luthor engaging in real estate scams in the movies.

thats easy as pie,no contest.anybody ever hear of organic webshooters? uggh. starts barfing.

 

[S. Grundy]

I never got the hate for organic web shooters, than I realize it's just fanboys. If he's got all the other characteristics of a spider, why shouldn't he be able to produce his own webbing.

 

[Red.Star.Killer]

Worst:
The Schumacher Batman films
Sandman killing Uncle Ben & New Goblin in Spidey 3
Kingpin killing Jack Murdock instead of the Fixer, Elektra not becoming an assassin until her Film, and Typhoid Mary
Blob being apart of Weapon X and the messed up time line which introduced gambit too early and the xmen
Punisher being a mindless killer in PWZ, not a smart, cunning, tactician/soldier, and the faded skull
Superman overcoming his kryptonite issue as well as Luthor's plan in returns
Catwoman
Dr. Doom being a d-bag corporate pretty boy, the Galactus cloud, and Surfer being powerless without his board
Two-Faces transformation in TDK
The costumes in the xmen films, except first class
Juggernaut not being related to charles
Punisher 04 origin and setting change

Best:
Blade's appearance/weapons
Kick Ass
Parker having organic webbing
Volstagg not being morbidly obese and Jane being more than a nurse/doctor
Iron Man Origin from Vietnam to Iraq
Batman utilizing the thing he fears as his new persona in Begins

 

[WarBlade]

Also, can't believe I forgot this. The absolutely worst changes of all time have to be Catwoman

Catwoman wasn't a change. Maybe it was a re-imagining of the Catwoman from Tim Burton's film, but I can't see how it could be a worst change in an adaptation of a comic book if it wasn't really an adaptation of a comic book in the first place. t:

I never got the hate for organic web shooters, than I realize it's just fanboys. If he's got all the other characteristics of a spider, why shouldn't he be able to produce his own webbing.

Yeah, I've always felt the same way. Those things were a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't for live action.

Put organic webshooters in?
- Fanboy complaints about creative license.

Put mechanical webshooters in?
- Fanboy complaints about bracelets mounted outside the costume not being consistent with the comicbook look.

Either way someone's going to complain... and yet the funny thing is that those same fans somehow manage to turn a blind eye to the finger spines replacing the subconcious friction control power of the comicbook Spider-Man.

 

[El Payaso]

I never got the hate for organic web shooters, than I realize it's just fanboys. If he's got all the other characteristics of a spider, why shouldn't he be able to produce his own webbing.

From his a** like a real spider?

 

[WhiteRat]

From his a** like a real spider?

exactly.it was a just a change for the sake of change.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Best change? Miss Tessmacher.

 

[El Payaso]

exactly.it was a just a change for the sake of change.

Basically.

Raimi thought that Peter inventing a mechanical web-shooter was too unrealistic. And then he had this ultra-modern spider-suit which we're supposed to believe Peter made in his room.

 

[Shockdingo]

Well cosplayers can make amazing things these days...

 

[DarthDaveBanner]

Blade, Toad and De Vito's penguin towered over their previous comic incarnations.

 

[S. Grundy]

Basically.

Raimi thought that Peter inventing a mechanical web-shooter was too unrealistic. And then he had this ultra-modern spider-suit which we're supposed to believe Peter made in his room.

It is a lot more believable than a high school creating mechanical web shooters and webbing fluid.

 

[The Joker]

It is a lot more believable than a high school creating mechanical web shooters and webbing fluid.

So you can buy a guy getting spider powers, but you can't by a teenage science whiz creating mechanical webshooters?

 

[El Payaso]

It is a lot more believable than a high school creating mechanical web shooters and webbing fluid.

Yeah, a student who's a genius on science is more likely to make a great costume than some great mechanical device.