Everyone keeps saying how the book is always better than the movie. Hell I assumed that in my Hunger Games movie review. Then I thought about it and no, that’s not true at all. I know from doing searches on the topic that this isn’t the case either but I’m only presenting movies where I’ve read the book and saw the movie (or at least got far enough into the book to get a feel for it).
Here some my ‘movies better than the source material) and they contain MASSIVE SPOILERS:
Kick Ass
Source material: The Comic book about a regular kid who wants to be a superhero.
Change(s) made: Most of the movie follows nicely with the comic except for one major plot point – the girlfriend. In the movie Kick Ass reveals to this chick he has a crush on. At first she’s kind of pissed, but begins to accept it and even starts falling hard for Kick Ass. In the comic when he reveals himself she gets pissed…so pissed that she gets her boyfriend Carl to punch out Kick Ass and later sends Kick Ass a picture of her blowing him…
Why the change was better: It’s a serious letdown. It wouldn’t have been so bad if she just decided Kick Ass was a crazy person, no she had to go over the top with her disgust. It’s not even that it was NOT a happy ending, but it almost feels like salt in the wound.
The Watchmen
Source material: Every comic book nerd should have read this by now. If you haven’t AND you’re not a comic book nerd, still read it, it’s amazing.
Change(s) made: It’s all about how the movie ends. Up until that point the movie is pretty faithful to its source material and that was a major accomplishment to begin with. Both the comic and the movie end with major a major disaster that kills millions of people in an attempt to stop the United States and Russia from going to war (Nuclear war!). In the comic this is done by a careful crafted scheme of a potential alien invasion (see Giant Alien Squid). In the movie Dr. Manhattan gets the blame and even accepts the blame.
Why the change was better: People knew about Manhattan, they knew he was the only one true super powered being with the ability to cause such destruction. The cold war countries now think they have a common, all powerful, enemy that allows them to set aside their differences and focus on. In the comic some random giant alien gives that same result (set aside differences) BUT nothing is known about the alien. Human beings have no way of knowing the potential threat, if it’ll happen again, or even a way to begin to tackle the issue to prevent it (how long can the threat last?). In the movie the threat of Dr. Manhattan is well known, they know he could return at any moment (the threat could last longer) and they can begin to build a defense since they know something of his powers.
Lord of the Rings
Change(s) made: Ok I admit, I started to read the books years and years ago. It’s not an easy book to read with all the pages of description on (seemingly) trivial things and the elvish stuff. The movie cuts a lot of this out but showing and implying. Hell even the movies are a full day of watching and it still holds my interest. Add to the overall tone some characters got cut…ok Tom whatshisface got cut and that was definitely a change for the better.
Why the change was better: It’s easy to have a picture describe something that literally took a thousand words. This may seem like a copout as a book that can describe things so that you get a clear mental image is a sign that the book has done its job well. Yet LoTR the book was just too much. Sure there’s no major plot point that I read of that was different since I didn’t finish the books, but it was that I couldn’t finish the books that makes the movie better.
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