Astonishing Adaptations Discussion #1

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Is there a favorite book which you've read and found out a movie was to be made of it, then you waited and waited for the movie to come out? What was the book and what was the movie (or adaptation)? Did you enjoy it or were you sorely disappointed? (minimum number of words to count - 100)

[Rhaneyra Black]

The book I have chosen is Vampire Academy, it was written by Richelle Mead, and to be honest, when the book came out, I was so excited, I had a vampire phase, so this was perfect for me. I read the book about 4 times when I heard the movie was coming out. I was shocked to say the least. I waited eagerly for it to show in cinemas and when it came out...I was half happy and half disappointed. Mostly because the movie seemed to want to look at the more mature end if things rather than the story of the teenagers, and the struggle they were going through. But the characters chosen I think were perfect depictions for the ones in the books, and they even had the characters personalities down to a T.

[Anne-Marie Gagne]

I was very excited for the Percy Jackson movies when the first was announced. I had just read the books for the first time about a year before the movies were announced and they quickly became favorites of mine. When the first movie came out I did enjoy it but was slightly disappointed in how much from the other books were shoved into the first movie. Those parts were just out of place but overall I loved the movies. Logan Lerman I believe was a perfect Percy Jackson! But despite that, the rest of the cast was off to me. I can't quite explain since it really is just that a feeling I have but it may be contributed to the rushing of the story in the movie. The second movie was worse than the first since I believe part of the rush and combining of the stories in the first movie was that the movie studio probably didn't expect the movie to do so well.

[Elizabeth Hermione]

Other than Harry Potter, my favourite book is Percy Jackson. After I read the whole series I grew in love with it so when I heard that there going to be a movie coming up I was so very excited that I pleaded my parents doing anything for them if they take me to see the movie. At first my parents told that I could watch it online after the movie has been published to the internet, but I wanted to see the movie now so they brought the tickets. After I watched the movie, I was disappointed because some of the most interesting parts in the book has been cut but it overall, the movie was really good.

[Aura Nightmoon]

The only one I can think of right now is To All the Boys I've Loved Before. I enjoyed the books. I read them for summer reading because I saw it was on Netflix, and I wanted to read the book first before watching it. The movie was good, and I thought it was done well. I really liked the actress who played Lara Jean. I haven't watched the subsequent movies that are out on Netflix that follow the rest of the series, but I will when I have the chance. I heard the last one that came out wasn't that great, but I'll see. I like seeing books brought to life, and I did like the first movie after reading the book. Sometimes they can be disappointing, but I wasn't disappointed with this one.

[Kalgri Sicaria]

The adaptation I was most excited for was the film version of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. I absolutely loved the books and went to see the film at the cinema as soon as I could. I genuinely enjoyed the film and have re-watched it multiple times. Yes, there are some flaws in changes that were made to the story which meant that further adaptations of later books would be unlikely, but the costumes, sets, characters, and actors were all brilliant! I have watched the Netflix adaptation as well and I enjoyed being able to see some of the other stories on the screen (as many of my favourites were late in the series), however, I felt like the film version had such perfect casting that it was difficult to enjoy it as much.

[Janne Halla]

I really loved The Maze Runner series and when I heard that the movies will be made after them, I was pretty excited to see the first entry. Despite a lot of changes, I still liked it, since I know it's hard to adapt or show so many things in the book that are important to the story, or are clues to what is going on. I also really liked the actors of more prominent characters, though I imagined many quite differently.

I didn't like the second and third movies, however, though I've seen them. Too much was changed in my opinion, or certain events were that didn't make me invested in the story as much.

[Aurelia West]

Like several others, I read the Percy Jackson books and loved them before the movies were announced. I remember going to see the first movie in theaters with a group of friends and unfortunately leaving fairly disappointed. The title of the movie had led me to believe it would merely be an interpretation of the first book in the series, however it ended up blending aspects that appear later in the series in a bad way. I never went to see the second movie so I don't know how it continued, but even after watching the first film, I recall wondering how they would adapt the rest of the series due to how heavily the plot had changed.