When it comes to Books compared to FIlm versions – everyone has their own point of view, but which is better. We got our hands on some information about some of the worse translated books to films.
About
The data analysis was provided by Onbuy.com who discovered some interesting facts – we felt needed analysing further. They used the information to discover which is the book-to-film adaptations left fans most disappointed.
They combined the review scores of the books on Goodreads with the movies on IMDb. The results focus on the differences in the score between the two.
What do you think is the most disappointed adaptation?
The Data
provided by Onbuy.com.
The worst book to film does not really surprise us as it is Fifty Shades of Grey. The film got a score of 44% worse compared to the Book. Having seen some of the film and read the reviews at the time, it did not have a good balance. Reading up on the differences between the two, Christian was changed too much to make him seem darker and surprisingly (for some) there is more sex in the book than the movie.
Second film to have a big difference in the scores is the final film in the Hunger Games series of movies Mockingjay – Part 2 and its book version Mockingjay with the book getting 19% more in score. Comparing the two Mockingjay movies to the book show the movies were actually toned down allot.
Other notable entries are The Girl on The Train (17% difference), The Lovely Bones (12% difference) and The Help (10% difference). All of these 3 films are actually good films to us, however reading up about the books and how they portray the characters makes us think otherwise.
Overall
When it comes to using that Book source material and making it for film – lots of stuff happens from the process to getting it ready for becoming a film.
Films have to take a sometimes very thick book and make it into a 2-3 hour movie – that most often means shortcuts need to be taken. Lord of The RIngs is a good example of cutting out and changing elements to make the films adaptation work for more people. Good general examples of book to film include:
- Frodo was made younger
- Sam was no longer a servant
- Aragon was made more hero like with his backstory
- Gimli became comedic
- The films weave and cut in different stories of the separated party of characters.
- Songs and Poems were cut out to help with run time
- Thats only naming a few!!!
Then Films also need to think about the censors as Book censors and Film censors have different variables to think about. If the film rights get bought to a particularly adult book but they want to hit a 15 rating film – they got to tone it down.
We understand why changes occur to make the film better for a film audience compared to a book audience. Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. Changes have to really happen, consider the Watchmen film from 2009 – which can be considered a shot for shot comic film, it tanked.
What is your favourite adaptation? We loved how Moneyball took complex material and
For More INFO –
The information on the numbers was provided by Onbuy.com – who delved into the numbers to discover interesting facts.
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