Hi,
I am at work and I've got nothing to do, so I will do a small review of movies where I read the book (the novel that came before the book, no novelizations).
I like reading books. But I like to explore books when I saw the film first. That has several advantages. Often the movie shortens or redefines the story. When I watch the film first and read the book later I know there is more to come. If I do it the other way around I know there will be things missing. Additionaly books are often better than their counterparts, so it will be an improvement to read the book afterwards.
I write this from the top of my head. If there are any aspects I didn't mention please ask me and I will tell you what I think.
Movie Title: The Bourne Identity
Book Title: The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
Book and movie have practically nothing in common except the beginning and the names of the actors. Whilst the book plays during the 80s (I think) the movie is placed in or around the year it was made. This fact alone results in different usage of technologies such as computers and mobile phones. Both Bournes travel to the same places (Zürich, Paris) but the rest is totally different. I liked the movie better than the book because I had a hard time getting through that book.
Consequentially both sequels have even less in common with their book counterparts.
Movie Title: The Three Musketeers
Book Title: The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas, père)
There are countless movies made from that book and they retell all more or less the story of the book. This is a rather free interpretation and a lot of changes were made, especially in regard to the cardinal. In this movie is is the ultimate villain which he wasn't in the book. But I like the movie because of the ensemble and the music.
Movie Title: Dune
Book Title: Dune (Frank Herbert)
This book is a science-fiction classic and I could read it over and over again. The movie has practically nothing to do with the book and even then I seriously doubt that someone who hasn't read the book fully understands what happens in the movie. The sonic weapons didn't exist in the book at all. How the spice and the worms are connected is explained (in one sentence) but I doubt if this explanation is truly understandable. But I love both the book and the movie, the latter because of its excellent looks and music.
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Movie Title: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (1) to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (5)
Book Title: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" (1) to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" (5) (J.K. Rowling)
This is one of the rare occasions where I read the books first and watched the movies later. I love the books and Prisoner (3), Goblet (4) and Hallows (7) are my favourites. The quality of the movies is unsteady. The first ones are more faithful to the book because it is doable due to the length of the books, the later ones have to leave out stuff. My least favourite movie is Prisoner, because there is too much missing what I deem important and I've got the feeling that they only worked by checklist. Dudley Home. Check. Knight Bus. Check. And so on. Many didn't like the Order movie but I thought it to be a good one. It had a major glitch at the end (who could hear the prophecy) but other than that I liked it. Especially because I didn't like the book too much because it had many lengths which could have been shortened.
Movie Title: The Hunt for Red October
Book Title: The Hunt for Red October (Tom Clancy)
The movie is a fairly good adaption of the book with some slight changes probably due to ramatization reasons. In a matter of content I think it's a bit unbelievable that the russians build a new "soundless" propulsion system and some (american) sonar guy just manages to find that sound and reprogram the sonar computer to track it down in a matter of days. Clancy seems to be very proud of what the US military is capable of doing but sometimes it's a bit over the top.
Movie Title: Clear and Present Danger
Book Title: Clear and Present Danger (Tom Clany)
Here on the other hand book and movie have not much in common except for the general storyline. In the movie Jack is the action hero who gets his guys out and has massive shootouts with the bad guys. In the book he is much more the CIA analyst. But it's been a while since I've read the book.
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Movie Title: "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" to "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
Book Title: "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" to "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Tell me what you want, the books are boring as hell. After having watched the first movie in the theatre I thought "Hey, great story, have to read the books!". I read about 100 pages (german version) and then I put it away. I re-tried about a year later and forced myself trough it. But everybody kept saying what a great book this is and so I gave it another shot in the original (meaning: english) version. No, it wasn't better. It's still boring and I doubt that I will ever read it again. The movies on the other hand: I love them. I watch the SEE-cut once or twice a year and I love how the story is being told, the characters, the looks and the score.
Movie Title: Starship Troopers
Book Title: Starship Troopers (Robert Heinlein)
Movie and book differ on many things, for example gender and relations of the characters and how the troopers fight. In the book they are not as unprotected as in the movie but instead they wear combat suits that give them armor and a lot of weaponry (as opposed to the assault rifles used in the movie). I read the book only once, it wasn't that interesting to read. And while the movie is a god satire on militarized societies and a good splatter movie I don't watch it that often either.
Movie Title: Patriot Games
Book Title: Patriot Games (Tom Clancy)
Book and movie differ here, too. But I couldn't take the book seriously. While Clancy may have a good insight on the military and its weaponry (I can't verify that however) he certainly lacks realism when it comes to his characters. I had a great deal of laugh when I read that Jack Ryan and the
Prince of Wales personally(!) hunted the IRA terrorists down after they attacked the princes' house. The movie was my least favourite, too, but then I bought "The Sum of all Fears" and now I have a new one.
Movie Title: Takedown
Book Title: Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw - By the Man Who Did It (Tsutomu Shimomura / John Markoff)
I've read the book over and over again. Tsutomu is a bit arrogant, especially in how he treats Andrew but I love how he hunts down Mitnick and finally captures him. The movie didn't really catch that feeling and I felt disappointed.
Movie Title: Troy
Book Title: Iliad (Homer)
Forget it. The movie can't catch the story at all. I love the Iliad and the Odyssey and I watched this movie once - never again. I won't even give the DC a try. No can do.
Movie Title: Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story)
Book Title: Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story) (Michael Ende)
The movie came out to soon. If a remake would be made these days it would have a decent chance to depict the book's story. The story of the book is excellent, it's a famous children's book around here. But the FX departements weren't ready to make a movie out of it.
