“I Am Legend” has been made into 3 or more movies, none of which have anything like the book’s ending.
The Last Man on Earth (1964) is dull and misses the point almost entirely, but almost manages the title line. Not quite.
The Omega Man (1971) is exciting and misses the point even further.
I Am Legend (2007) almost gets it. The vampires are competent. Will Smith’s smarter than Neville of the book, but crazier. But then both endings fail to treat the vampires as a society.
Omega Man is a fun movie though.
I only know of Will Smith version of “I am Legend”. There are more?
I read the book on a whim in high school. I think it was one of those random Barnes and Nobles finds. The ending was an amazing horror twist, with Neville realizing he’s the monster and the audience realizing that they’ve been rooting for the villain The whole time, and the acceptance of the transition to the new society.
The only adaptation I’ve seen was the Will Smith movie which was generic zombie movie nonsense.
Days Gone (the game) did a better job than the “I am legend” movie, imo. Approached a similar plot from a different angle.
I’m so upset they killed any sequel. Now we’ll never know what happens with O’Brien!
I agree! >:(
Were the zombies not killing any human in sight in the book?
They weren’t zombies, they were vampires in the book. Like talking, civilized people.
The original cut of the 2007 ended with Will Smith’s character realizing he had been abducting and murdering conscious, aware creatures. The ending has the vampires doing a rescue mission, visibly terrified of Smith, and then he allows the one he abducted to rejoin her society.
Test audiences apparently didn’t like it or didn’t understand it
Test audiences apparently didn’t like it or didn’t understand it
The Omega Man (1971) is exciting and misses the point even further.
Appropriate, as the star of that movie usually did too.
the 1964 one at least has vincent price in it
It’s funny the irony of I Am Legend, it is an allegory to an older society having to make way to a newer one, and somehow every time that’s the story they can’t do.
No one appears to have yet mentioned Forrest Gump. In the book he was a chess grandmaster who wrestled professionally and was an astronaut. Also, the book sucks.
the book as an audiobook is good
Forrest was a POS and he was a bum because he knew it!
I haven’t watched or read it. Are you saying the movie is better than the book in spite of bastardizing it?
I think the book was written to be satire and the movie is, uh, comedic but in a much less pointed way
Liberalism and Great Man Theory, name a more iconic pair.
A Wrinkle In Time was fucking insulting.
I think it was much worse for people that actually liked the book.
Agreed. I read it when I was in 5th Grade and thought it was wonderful. I noped out of the movie when Reese Witherspoon [?] turned into a flying carpet.
Is that even possible, the movie was fucking awful and I never read the book.
The book is actually very good for children’s literature. Its kid-friendly way of describing how wormholes work stuck with me.
for me it felt like gaiman/ishiguro/murakami for kids
the main impressions i have left of it are of trippy kaleidoscopic space fabric and someone in a jar; i distinctly recall being very frustrated that the author did not bother to explain in great detail exactly how the space witch went from being a star to being a space witch
child me yearned for the spreadsheets
I’m going to flip the spirit of the question and say that Michael Crichton’s Timeline movie adaptation is so bad that it falls into so bad it’s good territory. I own it on bluray, and we watch it at least once a year.
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First Blood
That book is so amazing. The film is good, but it really is a bastardization of the book, which is way more interesting in its characterizations of both “Rambo” (i forget his name in the book) and the Sheriff
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Inkheart by Cornelia Funke is one of my most beloved series
read that series several times and when they announced a movie I was so hyped!
and the movie was just ok :C
I haven’t seen any movies based on books since then unless it receives high praises which I haven’t seen muchThe vampiers assistent, bases on the Darren Shan series. The tried to fit the first 3 books and the last one in one movie, and skipping over the other 8 books… And who is Rebecca the monkey girl… I wand Debbie and Sam…
After binging the 12 books over the holidays, I’ve made an attempt to watch the movie adaptation. It couldn’t be that bad, could it?
It was much worse. Possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.
Idk how they fuck up kids/young adult book adaptions so bad so often.
The series of unfortunate events movie was similar, I did like it but they smushed the three books into one movie and then never did the rest wtf?
Percy Jackson was also pretty bad
Then you didn’t watch Eragon. Lucky
I have to imagine that Lawnmower Man is in the running. Talk about having nothing at all to do with the ‘book’ , (well, short story anyway).
Agreed. It bears so little resemblance to the “”“source material”“” that they were legally required to remove all mentions of Stephen King from the film credits and promotional materials when it released on VHS.
When I found the short it was based on I was all “cyber-gore here I come” and then I read it…
I guess they both had a lawnmower?
Hunger games.
I should really read those, as I really enjoyed those movies (the earliest ones more than the later ones, admittedly). What’s so different about the movies?
I enjoyed the films more than the books. The books after the first feel like the author had a good idea, but didn’t know what to do with it. The films tidy it up nicely
Each to their own I guess :-)
The later books really take it to a new level IMO, much more weight to them and more character development.
Those movies are good.
I still enjoyed the movies but I felt they did not do the story justice. I hated how everything looked and I also hated how little time was spent on the characters relationships inside the hunger games.
I know its not a classic, but Dan Brown’s inferno the book and the movie have two different endings and it angers me every time.
The foundation series by apple is pretty bad.
How bad? The absolute best part is a part not present at all in the books (the Cleons). Everything related to the book is bastardised, imo.
I love the series and I love the books. It’s just not for book purists but they’ve made a really good take on the universe and it’s also beautiful.
It’s amazing just how visually impressive the show is. If it was done with the best we had 30 years ago it still would have been good, but the vfx would have dragged it down. Now it raises it to a whole other level.
Do you think the show itself is bad or is it just bad as an adaptation of the book?
I’d say it’s a bad adaptation of the book. But as a sci-fi series, it’s quite good. I rate it at least 7 out of 10. Although I haven’t watched the second season because I’m waiting for it to be finished so I can binge it if I wanted to.
The show is based on the universe and some characters created by Asimov but it’s freely adapted. You’ll have to see the TV shows and the books as two entities, there are a few similarities, Easter eggs, etc. But they’re different and both great IF you’re not looking for a translation from text to screen.
The TV series is eerily beautiful, the story is better in S2 and more complex. Great cast too and on a “small” budget.
I enjoyed it so far as well and really like the development the Cleons go through. Maybe I’ll look into the books when the series is concluded
The way I see the TV show is like the creators are constantly placing details to say “Hey! This Asimov guy was really smart and he wrote this rad SF saga, you should really check it out!”.
David Goyer and his team, they’re not just making a show about some old scifi books : they’re truly fans of Asimov’s work and you can feel it. It’s a work of love.
I actually really like the show, but I’ve just decided to act as though it’s completely unrelated to the books, because besides the names of characters, and the initial events, it basically is.
The Cleons aren’t even in the book!?? What the…
Nah all the “downfall of the empire” stuff happens off screen.
Also the series is an anthology with each short story being hundreds or thousands of years apart.
The many adaptations of the Iliad, none of them is gay enough.
somewhere in the distance, the Blue Oyster Salad Bar music starts playing
Eragon. They really fucked up so much about the book!
I never read the book but I agree the movie was absolute rubbish
I loved that book growing up and was so excited when the movie was coming out (on my birthday!)
To this day, that movie is the only one I legitimately walked out of. It was such a terrible adaptation.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs should have never been made into a movie.
The movie was great, so I suppose that only says good things about the books!
I didn’t know it is a book. I liked the movie though.
I should probably add it to my list then!
Huh, I didn’t even know it was a book in the first place. The movies weren’t half bad at all, as their own thing…
I LOVED that book! It was one of the books that helped me learn English as a kid. The movie was an utter mockery of it and I don’t even know what the fuck they were thinking with the sequel.
