So, in preparation for the upcoming season of Game of Thrones, this weekend I watched the first half of season 2. While I was watching it, Bonni mentioned how she remembered watching a specific episode with someone who just couldn't stop pointing out/complaining about differences between the books and the show. Then I decided to be the dick I always am, and point out all of the differences that I noticed. Then I actually thought about it and thought that this could be a great topic for this week's rant: book adaptations and why it's all right if they aren't exactly the same.
It seems like 90% of Hollywood films are either based on a) factual events b) adaptations of existing books/plays/comics, etc or c) remakes. There are very few original films nowadays, and those that are original, don't always feel that way. I understand why people would have issues with a remake of their favorite movie or what not, but I feel very indifferent about it. For example, The Evil Dead is one of my favorite movies, and something that I could watch over and over without getting bored. That being said, I have absolutely no problem with them remaking it. I think that this remake has been handled well, by involving the original creators and such, and will turn out to be good. And I feel that the same thing is true about book adaptations.
I think that there are several factors to making a good book adaptation. The biggest thing to me is passion. I think whoever is making this adaptation should be passionate about the material that they are involved with. For example, David Benioff and DB Weiss are huge Game of Thrones fans. They love the series and decided to make the show because of that (I'm going to be using Game of Thrones as an example a lot, so deal with it.) They are very familiar with the material and their vast knowledge of the universe makes it easy for them to know what needs to stay and what can be cut. I think that if someone isn't passionate about material, they might leave out pretty important stuff that they just think won't make for good movie material, but remove something that changes the feel of the film completely.
Besides passion, I think ability to part with extraneous material is very important as well. I think one of the biggest problems with The Perks of Being a Wallflower is that the writer of the book wrote and directed the film. He was so attached to his own work and didn't want to leave out any of it, so he left in a lot of needless material. I'm not saying the movie was bad, I just felt that it dragged a little and, if he hadn't been so attached to the material, it could have worked out better. I think a great testament to this are the Harry Potter films. All of those movies aim to tell an overarching narrative, so they know exactly what needs to be told, and what side plots can be left out. This is absolutely key to making an adaptation that has the same feel, and also doesn't drag.
Now I'm going to complain about...well...you. Maybe not you specifically, but viewership as a whole. I think that we suffer from a big problem: we are never satisfied. When we fall in love with a certain book, we get excited when they adapt it into a movie, or mini-series, or TV show. But we are always disappointed. Why? Because they cannot straight up adapt anything. There has to be some give and take when it comes to adaptation. Like I said, if you straight adapt something, it will drag, and people will complain that they left too much in! We literally cannot be pleased.
Now, I know I'm making a vast overgeneralization, but I'm doing it to make a point. Yes, some of us can be pleased with adaptations, but there are always those people that just have to complain that this part was left out, or this part wasn't. Those people are the ones that need to be taken out back and put down. Yes, I enjoy a nice discussion about what was left out and what was changed and why that might have happened. But I will never complain about a change unless it changes the entire theme or message of the property.
I really love reading a book and then watching a movie and getting to compare them and discuss why the filmmaker or screenwriter made the decisions they made. Hell, I even took an entire class on it. But that is discussing. People need to put on their big boy/girl pants and just deal with the fact that everything can't be perfect. I mean, they changed/left out a lot of stuff from season 2 of Game of Thrones, but it was still fucking awesome. That just shows what a little passion can create.
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