Or tv series? This question occurred to me when reading "fight club". Im not done with the book yet but this is the first time I've thought the movie is better. I appreciate it for where all the ideas came from but it lacks some things I like about the movie. Its possible its just that I saw the movie first but I've done that with other movies and I've never thought it before.
Any other examples or if you want to tell me im wrong. Im open to it.
by Annual_Interest5338
49 Comments
honestly, i think *the lord of the rings* movies did a way better job pacing-wise than the books, no shade to tolkein though. some scenes just hit harder on screen, ya know?
The Godfather springs to mind
Recently it was Hamnet. Couldn’t stand the structure or writing of the book but was absolutely blown away by the movie
The Prestige and Silence of the Lambs are two for me.
LotRs, Fight Club, Hitchhikers Guide, and You Were Never Really Here.
The Shining, such a good movie.
I’m reading Thinner right now and then I’ll rewatch the movie, but I suspect the movie is better. I think there might be a lot of King books that made better movies.
I really enjoy reading a book and then watching the movie, it’s kinda fun to see what they change. I kinda like the ones that are wildly different from the book – like Howl’s Moving Castle.
Cujo and Jaws.
Both movies dropped the adultery subplots to focus more on the actual critter we all came for. Good move!
Any Grisham or Sparks book
Blade Runner is better than Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
It is known.
Ready Player One is often weird in ways that stand out as not so great. The movie clears some of the muck away and replaces it with fun set pieces and a decent adventure.
My Sister’s Keeper. But only because they changed the ending in the movie (the ending in the book ripped my heart out).
Ha, was gonna say “Fight Club.” Literally my only answer
I’m reading the first mistborn book from Brandon Sanderson.
Let’s just say i hope i prefer the movie/show (I can never recall which book will be a movie vs a show)
The shining
Jaws.
Both Ringu (1998) and The Ring (2002) are significantly better than the original book, imo.
Yes, several, although I do tend to prefer books. Here’s some examples of movies that are much better than the original material:
– Stalker (based on the book Roadside Picnic)
– Trainspotting
– A clockwork orange
– 2001 a space Odyssey (the books and the movie were made at the same time, I think)
– Blade Runner (based on Do androids dream of electric sheep?)
The Warriors, No Escape,
Nickel Boys
Stardust, even before we found out Neil Gaiman is a shit person.
I’m also more attached to the movie of Picnic At Hanging Rock because the music and visuals create such a wonderful, haunting vibe, but I do really admire the book as well.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say the Emma Thompson Sense and Sensibility is entirely better than the book, but I think it fixes one of my biggest gripes with the book by giving Edward some actual characterization. The book version is just such a non-entity because he barely appears at all!
Starship Troopers
The Bourne Identity
LOTR Trilogy, The Notebook, Jurassic Park, Gone Girl, Crazy Rich Asians
The Hunger Games, The Mist, The Prestige
Sharp Objects the show. I liked the book too, but I love the show.
Jurassic Park and The Godfather are the two that immediately come to mind. I would say the movies are far superior.
Anything by Stephen King. I just cannot read his writing style, dont know why. Hes a great writer im not knocking him i just cant do it. But I love a lot of the movies adapted from his work.
I always thought the American Psycho movie was better than the book, mostly because it didn’t go off on as many horrific tangents
The Martian.
I gather that the science and engineering doesn’t make anywhere near as much sense as the book, but in the film the characters appear to be real people and not sentient XKCD strips so I think it’s a good trade off.
Jurassic Park. In the book I find the kids annoying to a point I want to skip the parts they are in. In the movie I root for them.
The Martian.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The book is amazing, but it’s literally one big run on sentence with no formatting. I remember having to read it in one day because there was no convenient place to stop.
Slow Horses, DNF the first book maybe halfway through. Literally only pay for Apple TV for new seasons of the show.
3 Body Problem is a much better TV series than the books.
Foundation – it’s probably blasphemy but I find the TV series MUCH more entertaining and fleshed out than the books.
For both of these I thought the books introduced great sci-fi ideas but the actual storytelling was lacking.
I can argue either way for “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest”
*The Prestige*, *The Princess Bride*, and *Jurassic Park* are the big three for me that are great, great books with even better movies.
Catch-22. A lot of the zany dialogue and situational humor translates really well to the screens.
It’s only a very loose adaptation and they’re both very good, but One Battle After Another is definitely better than Vineland to me.
Love Ronald Dahl, but Fantastic Mr Fox. Also Fight Club. Obviously.
Children of Men
The two Dune movies for me. They managed to capture the brilliant aspects of the book while improving the clunky dialogue and adding mystery by not including the epigraphs.
Life of Pi. I saw the movie before I knew it was a book. I love both, but when I read the novel I really missed the visual vibrancy of the film.
Jaws
The Princess Bride
I prefer the ending of movie Contact to book Contact.
It’s alllll good but the movie is better.
The Magicians – I loved the show. Its very much an ensemble show, the characters are great, its very fun. The book is much more focused on Quentin, and I dont like book Quentin that much! The pacing is also very different, and I prefer the show pacing.
I preferred the TV series version of GoT. I read book 1 of the novels at least a decade before the HBO series. I loved the story and characters, but I hated the writing.
After watching season 1 of the series, I returned to the books and finished those available. I still prefer the viewed television series to the writen version.
This is truly unusual for me. I’m an avid reader and almost always prefer the books. I just don’t vibe with GRRM’s writing.
Both are good, but the movie “Children of Men” is better than “The Children of Men” by PD James
The Talented Mister Ripley. The book was more of a straightforward thriller without much of the conflicted psyche that was present in the film.
Everyone sayin LOTR, I’ll meet you in the street after work and we can fight it out. One at time
Edit- ok I guess is says “liked more” not “are better” so that’s more understandable.
Stardust and Coraline