It's no secret that books are better than movies representing them. However, that is only sometimes the case. What is an example of a movie you preferred over the book? After someone asked which films existed, these were the top-voted responses.
1. Jaws
One user shared, “Jaws. Hooper had an affair with Brody's wife, and the mayor had mafia ties. Why Peter Benchley?” “It was a garbage romance novel with a shark in it. The film is a masterpiece,” another agreed. A third added, “And the music wasn't in the book either!”
2. Fight Club
“I was a huge Palahniuk fan in high school,” a user admitted, “And even then, I maintained that the movie was better than the book. I think Fight Club, the novel, would be outside Palanhniuk's top five, but it's a great film.”
3. The Boys TV Show
“I don't know if it counts, but so far, The Boys on Amazon Prime Video is far better than the comic book,” one user said. Another replied, “I was hoping someone would say this because this is one of the few times I try to refrain from using a successful live-action endeavor to gateway folks into reading comic books.”
“If someone likes The Boys, the TV show, I tell them to avoid the comic book at all costs but to try out almost anything else Garth Ennis wrote.”
4. Forrest Gump
“What a mediocre book. The movie quality was almost underserved for the original author,” a user suggested. “Not almost, but entirely. His version might have been an 80s comedy movie, dimly and not particularly fondly remembered. His Forrest Gump was the butt of all jokes with none of the charm or character of the movie version,” another said.
5. The Shawshank Redemption
“The Shawshank Redemption,” one user said, “It's a good enough short story, but it's one of the top 20 movies ever made.” Others agreed but added Stand By Me and The Green Mile to Stephen King movies that are better than the books. Finally, someone said, “I don't even love the film as most do, but yeah, it's much better than the short story.”
6. Children of Men
“Children of Men,” someone shared, “The book is very different from the movie, and the film is better for it. A good chunk of the book is where Theo screws off and goes on a sightseeing trip across Europe.” “I immediately thought of this one. The movie is much better. Reading the book after loving the film was a disappointment,” another replied.
7. The Princess Bride
In “The Princess Bride,” one user noted, “Buttercup is an imbecile in the book. IMHO it is also not well written. The relationships between characters like Inigo and Fezzik aren't developed. But it's a spectacular movie.”
Another stated, “The book and movie are too different from saying one is definitively better. Goldman wrote both, saw how things that worked in a 1973 book might not work in a 1987 movie, and made changes to make the best similar movie possible.”
8. Jurassic Park
“Maybe not better, but equally as good. Jurassic Park,” one person expressed. Many agreed that the book was more complex and had more scientific and technical jargon. One said, “Yeah, it had a lot of tech jargon. Also, Malcolm dies, and John Hammond dies. So not as happy an ending. I loved the book, but yeah, it wouldn't work as well as the movie.”
9. The Prestige
After someone mentioned how Christopher Nolan slightly changed it for the better, someone replied, “Slight differences? He cut out half the book and made it all better. I read the book after seeing the movie, and it is one of the few cases where the film is unequivocally better.”
10. Doctor Sleep
“Mike Flannigan's ending to Doctor Sleep was much better than Stephen King‘s, and I generally like King,” one person stated. Another agreed, “I think Flannigan had the Herculean task of making a film that was an adaptation of the book AND a sequel to one of the greatest movies of all time, and he knocked it out of the park.”
What do you think? Did Reddit get this right? Or is something significant missing from this list? Check out these ten worst book-to-movie adaptions.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.