Films that are better than the books they're based on

[The Batman]

Goldfinger.

 

[gwynplaine]

I don't know if it counts since it's comic books, but I kinda like TDK better than any Batman/Joker adventures in the comics. I love Arkham Asylum, TKJ, B1 and 2 etc, of course and they largely inspired the film, but I feel like the movie captured the essence of their relationship perfectly.

 

[sycamore]

American Psycho. The pace of the book is just to slow, particularly at the beginning.
Movie is much more efficient.

 

[Mandon Knight]

Ready Player One.

 

[Drizzle]

Ready Player One.

I think I agree, as much as I love the book. Spielberg's got the magic touch.

 

[Sundancer]

God no. Books are brillant, movies are a poor CGI fest.

Allow me to retort. Never saw what Tom Bombadil actually had to do with the narrative. His inclusion even weakened the threat of the ring since it showed someone not affected by it. I *think* Treebeards speech about the Ents was more wordy in the book. I also liked how the Two Towers movie interspersed the two narratives rather then completely dividing them like the book. Gandalf and Aragorn felt more three dimensional in the movie thanks to great performances.

I read Wizard of Oz once. That one had the Tinman literally chopping himself apart, among other things.

The movie is less weird/violent and more family-friendly/cute. I prefer the Garland adaptation.

The movie flowed more smoothly. The book felt disjointed.

 

[X-Woman]

One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest

 

[Spider-Fan]

Lord of the Rings trilogy (books were a chore with all the unneeded camping and such)
Blade Runner
The Shining

These are the ones I am immediately thinking of. Will try to come up with more.

 

[sycamore]

People actually arguing that the CGI-fest LOTR movies were actually better than the books...unbelievable...you realize that it was BECAUSE of Tolkien's masterful writing that the movies were green-lighted in the first place?

 

[Deck Rickard]

People actually arguing that the CGI-fest LOTR movies were actually better than the books...unbelievable...you realize that it was BECAUSE of Tolkien's masterful writing that the movies were green-lighted in the first place?

LOL... did you read the title of this thread? By that logic, NO movies are ever better than the books because they wouldn't exist had those books not been written.

 

[Drizzle]

And besides that, the CGI in Lord of the Rings was and still is amazing. I love the books too, but it can't be denied that Tolkien went into far too much detail about the most minute things, like Tom Bombadil. As long as they were, the movies kept a much tighter narrative.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Yeah. The CGI in LOTR still stands up... it's seriously better than the CGI in half the movies that come out now. I'd rather sit through nine hours of LOTR any day than sit through another Zack Snyder mess.

And yeah, as much as I love the books, Tolkien threw in a ton of superfluous stuff like Bombadil that I'm VERY happy didn't make it to the theatrical version. It would have just detracted away from the main story... which is something Tolkien did a few too many times in the books.

 

[Spider-Fan]

People actually arguing that the CGI-fest LOTR movies were actually better than the books...unbelievable...you realize that it was BECAUSE of Tolkien's masterful writing that the movies were green-lighted in the first place?

So? You can literally say that for ANY adaptation

 

[Schlosser85]

People actually arguing that the CGI-fest LOTR movies were actually better than the books...unbelievable...you realize that it was BECAUSE of Tolkien's masterful writing that the movies were green-lighted in the first place?

This is a complete non-point, as obviously for a movie adaptation to be made, there has to be a book to adapt it from

As for LOTR being a "CGI-fest", actually that fits The Hobbit trilogy better. In LOTR Jackson was pretty adamant on heavy use of actual elaborate sets and practical effects a lot of the time.

Obviously there is significant amounts of CGI (which given the material is kind of inevitable), but calling it a "CGI-fest" like you're trying to compare it to Transformers or something is just an uneducated comment.

 

[spider-neil]

The Prestige

Nolan gives a much tighter narrative than Priest.

 

[OutOfBoose]

LOTR isn't CGI fest by any stretch of imagination. They're brilliant adaptations (theatrical versions). But I don't think they're superior to the books.

 

[Herofan]

Wag the Dog and Striptease, mostly for drastically cutting down on the smugness of the original authors' tones and having much more energetic/appealing leads.

 

[DarkKnight]

Jaws and Jurassic Park.

Jaws the film had a better climatic ending vs the book.

Jurassic Park I thought the book was great too and wish the film had some additional scenes from the Novel but overall I enjoy the film more.

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

Last of the Mohicans
Deathly Hallows (but that's the only one that was better than the book)
I haven't read all the LoTR books but the reveal of Gandalf being alive was better in the movie.

 

[gaffer]

The Godfather. I like the outstanding performances of the actors.

 

[DarkKnight]

I decided to order Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton. before I read it and while waiting on delivery I decided to re-read his Jurassic Park and The Lost World (JPII) books (it had been many years since I read them).

I retract my last post in this thread. Though I still absolutely love the first Jurassic Park Film and it is a absolutely wonderful film I do find the book was better.

The film was a great true adaption of the novel with only some characters, deaths and certain scenes from the novel left out. But overall I wish the film had used some of the additional horror elements from the novel.


If you have never read The Lost World and you somewhat like the film, reading the book will make you nearly or truly hate the film. The book is 10X better than the film and the film is nothing like the novel other than the T-rex and RV Trailer scenes.


However, at the same time, reading both of these novels make me enjoy the first 3 films a little more (I was never a big fan of the third film) because many of the scenes that never made it in the first film from the first novel were used in the JPII and JPIII films. so understanding that makes me appreciate those scenes and films a bit more.

 

[FunkMiller]

1. Jaws

Big chasm.

2. Everything else.

 

[gwynplaine]

I hope The Meg is better than the book it's based on.

 

[DarkKnight]

I hope The Meg is better than the book it's based on.

Was the book that bad? I've considered picking it up to read as well and re-reading JAWS.

 

[gwynplaine]

Was the book that bad? I've considered picking it up to read as well and re-reading JAWS.

The books are not great but I still remember enjoying them. Especially the prologue to the 1st book, which I hope they kept for the film. No spoilers here.