Do you like movie adaptations of books?

[johns0]

Depends on the type of movie for me,for example I robot book series was much better than the movie adaption where as The Exorcist movie was as good as the book or even little better for me.Thanks to yoda313 for the poll.

[cal_tony]

I voted ..rather watch the movie than read the book

Don't know if... from books.... also include 'from Comic Books' but I do like just about all Comic Book movies.

I do read a lot, but not novels so it's hard to make the preference with those. Mostly, I read science or technical books and even though movies aren't made from them, they provide the kernels for so many science fiction movies.... which I also like.

Tony

[Hoser Rob]

I voted 'depends'.

I find the fiction I like to read doesn't usually translate well to movies well. It's not visual.

My favorite novelist is John le Carre, and the only good adaptations I've ever seen of his books were The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and that miniseries of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The classic example is Hitchcock. His old movies were based on literary fiction, like Rebecca which was a Daphne DuMaurier novel. His later stuff like Psycho on was pulp. And much better.

[yoda313]

thanks johns0.

i usually read star trek or star wars books so im the opposite really.

but i will read a book that a movie was made from. hunt for red october and sphere and jurassic park are ones i saw the movie first then read the book. i liked each version equally.

[Ethlred]

Clearly it depends on the adaptation. And the observer as some people hate Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings for the same reasons I like it. NO BLOODY TIM BENZEDRINE and less of the arrogant elves.

Planet of the Apes, I have only seen the original, was much better than the book. The movie Stuntman was VASTLY better than the book. Some for Roger Rabbit only more so. Die Hard the movie is much better than the book.

Starship Troopers was a stinker and the director seems to have been cause more than the screenwriter.

I Robot was NOT made from the Asimov stories. Or at least I read somewhere that the screenplay had zero to do with the Robot Novels and when it was purchased the studio just wanted the TITLE and not the story from I. Robot. Which makes sense because I, Robot was a collection of short stories not a novel and the title didn't represent the stories in the first place.

[D_Knife]

I thought hunt for Red October movie was such a pale imitation of the book. In the movie you missed out on all the introspection and meaning behind why a devoted officer would betray his country.

However I thought the original JAWS novel was quite convoluted and the movie trimmed out a lot of things it didn't need. Such as the Mafia and Ellen Brody's affair with Hooper.