Hollywood Adaptations and Why People Don’t Like Them

The only thing that I can compare to adapting a well-known work of fiction to the big screen, would be the act of participating in the lottery, or gambling. You either earn a lot back and are remembered for the great accomplishment, or you lose what you put on the table and everyone will remember the failure of your design, which you won’t soon forget either.

Everyone feels a small level of panic when they hear that one of their favorite works of fiction is announced to have a film adaptation and it is easy to understand why. But for the sake of clearing out all suspicion and questions regarding such a topic, I am here to dissect why such films often fail as adaptations of another story, the problems with adapting stories from different mediums of entertainment, and why fans play such an important role in the creation and subsequent release of these adaptations.

Making The Leap From One Medium To The Other

Whether the source material comes from a book or an animated work, even from a comic, the jump from one medium to another is one of the first steps an adaptation must make to get its feet off the ground and start to carve out its own identity. Adapting a book to film will always be different from adapting a cartoon, a comic, or any other medium because adapting from any medium comes with its own set of challenges.

When one adapts a book, for instance, they have to keep in mind that they will never be able to please their audience all the time. Something that a book will always have that the adaptation cannot replace is The Voice of the author, and how that voice presents the readers with all the books contained in a way that a mainly visual medium can only hope to emulate.

The way that a story is told is what makes it engaging to the reader, while the content must be competent, it’s how you present it that sells the audience on it. There is also the problems with how you film something that is not visual, something more internal, within the character’s mind, an example being something like inner monologues or the feeling of epiphany within a character’s heart, you can show a character making faces, but you often can’t communicate such feelings. A voiceover could be done in this case, but would it have the same impact as the words that the author wrote, putting pen put to paper? A voiceover can only take a scene so far in what is mainly a visual medium like films. While in the book you are the main character, in a film, you are merely a witness to the actions of the main characters.

Another challenge in this leap from book to film would have to be the connection that a reader will inevitably have to the book. Their use of imagination while interpreting the content of the book draws a picture within their minds of what everything looks like, which most of the time will not agree with the directors’ use of their imagination.

Animation is an entirely different matter. We live in an era where titans of the entertainment industry such as Disney, desperately attempt to recapture the magic of their old classics by copying and pasting such stories into the real world, with varying degrees of financial success. The reason why adaptations of famous works of animation are either badly done or are poorly received is that they, by their very nature, set themselves up to fail. Pleasing everyone is an impossibility, and if something has come before anything, both will inevitably be compared to one another, regardless of their background, just like how sequels of popular films are compared to find out why they are better or worse than their previous installment.

Respect For The Source Material

The title explains it all. This problem is the biggest by comparison, which is the respect, or rather lack thereof, for the source material. I’m not going to deny it, we all saw Avatar: The Last Airbender by M. Night Shyamalan, no amount of bleach for the eyes is ever going to erase that image, we should just accept its existence the same way we accept that flies and mosquitos exist.

“Wait, what’s that? I think it’s your honor!”

“Where?!”

The role that due respect of the source material plays in the creation of such great adaptations cannot be understated, it is because of this that so many movies fail miserably, because they do not have faith in what they are adapting and cannot see why anyone would want to watch it, which leads to another myriad of problems. Then it comes to the worse parts which is when they change parts of the film and deviate from the source material because of their own reasons, but we will eventually dive into that topic further below.

There is also the complication with adaptations missing the point of the original story itself, having deeper themes within them but since it belongs to animation, a medium commonly thought of as being exclusively for children, they are not taken seriously or given the respect they deserve. Misunderstanding the point of art is common enough, even more, when it comes from a background too dissimilar to yours, again, this happens with all adaptations overall, but animation-to-film adaptations are seen as the most egregious offender of this.

Case in point, the Ghost In The Shell live-action movie.

Comic books have their own problems, but there are more workarounds than there are issues in adapting such stories. The success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has shown us that taking the essence of the character and what they represent within the story they are the protagonist of, means, and does more for the adaptation than having everything like in the original comics. There are entire volumes of comic book series with decades of history, which have had reboots, remakes, cancellations, and special issues. Let us not even speak about the different authors and the stories they write using the same character but have the character act completely different because that is that respective author’s representation of the character.

Marvel movies and their many directors instead focus on the core of the character itself and the events which shaped them, taking that and adapting as much as they can into the film, no one is going to know about their decades of interactions with other heroes they’ve never heard of, so it is better to wipe the slate clean and introduce each gear and cog of their world little by little, not just drop it all at once since it would be overwhelming to the viewer and turn them off the movie.

Again, the content must be competent, but it’s how it’s presented to the audience that sells them on it.

Videogames have more problems than any other medium when it comes to adapting it to the big screen, mainly because of the nature of the medium itself, a videogame might have cutscenes and things that will one-hundred percent happen no matter the style of playthrough on behalf of the player, it is still an interactive medium and one person’s experience with the game will always be drastically different from another’s. This is why adopting a game to a movie is hard, because all who have already played the game have a mental image of what that game represents and their own experiences with it, a mental image that won’t always agree with that of the producer.

Changes In Exchange For Larger Appeal

This is the topic that I briefly mentioned in the previous section, as well as the problem with film adaptations that causes the most rage and anger within those that had already consumed the source material. I understand that money is the main reason behind most things we do in life. We work to get money, we get money to buy and pay for things, and we often make our own products more marketable with the hope that more people will buy it, therefore we earn more money and so the cycle continues until the end of time and reality as we know it.

When it comes to adapting a story to the big screen, after already being present in another medium, the most damming thing one can do about it is actively seeking to change the source material for the movie. Which in the perspective of the people who are passionate about the source material, feel like they are being slapped in the face, by someone who has the gall to change a story that they already believe to be good enough as it is. But then again, when you make such a film you don’t want to just appeal to the fans but everyone as well, so that the profit from the movie is exponentially higher.

Some changes can be almost insignificant such as skipping certain parts of a story because of how they are not immediately relevant to the story itself or because they believe that the adaptation would benefit from some creative deviation from the original story, this latter belief is sometimes right and sometimes wrong, it honestly has just as big of a chance of failing as it does at succeeding.

Directors, producers, and scriptwriters sometimes see the original source material more like a blueprint that should be followed step by step to ensure a faithful recreation of the original, I mean if the story was already a success then why change it? On the other hand, some see it like a jumping-off point, from which to do their own thing, keeping key concepts, characters, and locations but clearly go out of their way to distinguish themselves from the original for their own reasons.

The Live-action Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief Movie would go on to achieve moderate to average reviews and a longstanding hate-boner from all the books fans.

Such changes can either make or break an adaptation, with most cases being the latter, although the times this has succeeded should not be taken lightly. For example, we should look at that eldritch abomination from the forbidden angles of time and space known as Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief, that movie made changes that were not beneficial to the story, nor did it enhance the source materials core appeal or what made it special in the first place, instead it extended sections of the story to the point that they felt tedious.

Safe to say, no one believed in the strength of the source material, no one wanted to make this movie, watching it felt more like people doing homework rather than their own passion project. Another fact that can be attributed as to why it failed was because of how it handled its characters, how they acted, their role in the story, even how they looked was not handled properly, as I’m sure fans of the novels can attest. Grover in the novels, was not a lady’s man, he wasn’t popular and wasn’t as hyper-competent as they show him to be, in other words, the movie just took the concept and ran with it only with a vague idea of what it was all about.

Let us look at Stanley Kubrick for instance, someone who is notorious for upsetting all the authors of the books he adapted, to this day I still believe my own theory that he really did go out of his way to do it, but nevertheless, he is still quite well known for making adaptations of books that have been well received by both audience members and critics alike, why is that?

From A Clockwork Orange to The Shining, Kubrick has become synonymous with the act of successfully adapting a book to the big screen, despite how many authors that same gentleman has pissed off.

It is because of something so simple, yet so overlooked; reading. Mr. Kubrick had many tips on how to adapt a good book, but that was his main one, to enjoy the experience of the first read because by doing so you learn everything you need to know and since you earn more familiarity with what you are adapting, you can break it down more easily. At this point, you already have the perspective of the fan in mind, which means you can also understand what they would like and wouldn’t like to see.

The Creator’s Perspective & Dealing With Legacy

Let us look at it from their perspective for a little while if you will, alright? This is not an excuse for lackluster movies, this is just an observation of what I believe to be the truth and something that should be discussed more openly and without rancor.

Imagine, if you will, that you are a film director, you love your craft and enjoy bringing creative new projects to the big screen, after all, if you didn’t you wouldn’t have chosen this career path. You’ve adapted script after script and worked with many a talented actor, but one day you are commissioned to adopt someone else’s vision of a preexisting franchise with its own history and following, which you do not have much experience in.

Christopher Nolan, director of Interstellar, Tenet, Memento, Insomnia, and critically acclaimed comic book film The Dark Knight.

You will never have the same experience with the story because you are not watching it for enjoyment, but instead, you are doing so for ‘homework’ to adapt it properly. You may or may not create a bond to this story, but it will never be equal to that of those that have followed such a story for years on end, you are a newcomer to this story and are then given the job to adapt this story, which means so much to so many people, into a one-hour consumable film for the highest number of people possible.

How do you deal with something like that?

This is not an endorsement for bad adaptations, or an excuse for the incompetence and downright ignorance of some directors and producers, but rather an exercise in trying to understand all sides of this argument, things are rarely ever so black and white, and this problem, in particular, should be viewed from all angles, lest we perpetuate the issue longer.

The Image Of The Fan/Fandom & ‘Toxicity’

Fans, rather than common customers, are the backbone of any successful product, period. It is because of them and their fervent following of something that said something becomes successful, not only because they buy and consume the product itself but also because they put in a good word about the product to others who might one day become potential customers and fans themselves.

But needless to say, fans have gotten their fair share of hatred in the past few years, and companies have taken them for granted, throwing them away for next to no good reason other than the belief that their product can succeed even without their core ‘audience’. Fans are not perfect; some are very immature, disrespectful, entitled, and even bigoted, while some are calmer and understanding. I would like to focus this section on the fans themselves and how they relate to these adaptations.

The one who adapts a story and the fans themselves will always defer on what the adaptation should and shouldn’t do. They both have different visions of the franchise because of how they were exposed to it or how they consumed it, and that is perfectly normal. Though fans of a story who have grown with it since their childhood will of course have more of an understanding bond with it than a suit-wearing executive of some company who wants to adapt the story for the sole reason of earning money, which is of course the goal of every film adaptation.

First of all is the notion of toxicity, which encompasses many things, but I’ll tell what toxicity isn’t; criticism. The fact that a customer has a problem with your product isn’t their fault, it’s just their opinion on what they believe was an unsatisfactory product and, just like any opinion, should be properly addressed.

A word that better fits fans is the word ‘passionate’, they love X/Y franchise and will gladly defend it, but they see the changes that a director or producer makes as an afront and an insult to what they love, regardless of what that change may be, or how minuscule it is, so it can be expected that they will react in such a way, some with more maturity than others.

Conclusion?

Making an adaptation is just as hard as making a competent movie, though it has its own set of challenges depending on the story that they want to tell. There is a myriad of other issues I could have discussed, but instead, this blog of mine, my first blog, in fact, could be seen as an introduction to a much larger topic, but what I have said were merely my observations and opinions on the subject. I beg all of you to draw out your own conclusions regarding this and thank you all to have given me a handful of your time to listen to me express my views on the topic.

I wish you all a very good day.

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