fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #6747 ]

[ SECRET POST #6747 ]

⌈ Secret Post #6747 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

__________________________________________________

02.

__________________________________________________

03.

__________________________________________________

04.

__________________________________________________

05.

__________________________________________________

06.

[Bound (1996)]

__________________________________________________

07.

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 06 secrets from Secret Submission Post #965.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Semi-inspired by secret 1. What are your favorite and least favorite adaptions, and why? Also, what adaptions made changes that actually worked? What changes really didn't work?

It is blasphemous to say, but I actually found the books pretty boring to read but loved the movies. I felt they stayed true to the story but just took out all the boring bits.

I totally get this, honestly. Tolkien's writing isn't for everyone, and I get why a lot of people find him boring.

Also, for some reason, Middle Earth is one of those things where I love even loose adaptions. I just love it regardless. So while I love the books, I also love the movies. And the tv show. It all makes me happy.

I agree, but I am not a fan of reading fantasy.

I love the movies but for the life of me I can't finish the series b/c of Tolkien's writing.

+1
I’ve tried in so many ways to read or at least listen to the books but my god they’re boring as fuck! But the movies were gorgeous and fun and I finally got to understand what Tolkien fans love so much about Middle Earth and its stories.

I love the books and movies equally and I agree with you. His style really isn't for everyone and I am not going to argue with someone enjoying the movies more. For me I love the books for extra world-building and lore.

Love the books, hate the films (the scene where the beacons light up one after another was pretty good, though impractical in real-life terms.)

The adaptation that works best is the 1981 BBC radio drama. It's just about perfect (except for the first scene which is a bit confusing.) Christopher had input, so things that were a surprise at the time, like the Eagle's voice, became very clear long after.

The 1967 BBC radio Hobbit is absolutely excellent, too.

Re: LotR

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 04:10 (UTC) - Expand

Re: LotR

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 05:06 (UTC) - Expand

I liked the books okay, but the movies really brought that story to life for me in a way the books never did. They're not 100% faithful, but I can live with most of the alterations. It's worth it to see Middle Earth in such gorgeous detail.

The champion of Worst Adaptation will forever go to Ella Enchanted for me. What a travesty of a film. I suppose it could have been fun if they just said it was a made up story and not based on the book, but as a book adaptation? Oh hell no.

That book was my favorite for a long time when I was younger.

It's not my favorite, but I did enjoy the latest A Wrinkle in Time movie. It was like watching an AU version of the book. I'd like an adaptation that was more accurate, but I enjoyed the movie and understood the changes they made.

Yes, I enjoyed the Wheel of Time movie. The tv adaption was terrible, though.

I liked Ella Enchanted (I'll admit never read the book though) but that movie introduced me to Hugh Dancy 😍

Re: Least Favorite

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 00:06 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Least Favorite

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 00:14 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Least Favorite

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 00:59 (UTC) - Expand

I hate Howl's Moving Castle. I don't even think that it is a bad adaptation. It just strongly deviate from the original theme. But I hate how it overshadowes the book.

Favorites: LOTR, Rings of Power. Jurassic Park. Both animated and live action How to Train Your Dragon. Legend of the Seeker (better than the books by far). David Suchet's Poirot.

The Dune tv adaption was really, really good. I enjoy the recent movie adaption as well, but the tv version is best.

Least favorite: Wizard of Oz. Making it a dream ruins things. And the books were such a big part of my childhood, and I'm sad there is no faithful adaption.

The new Poirot movies.

The Last Airbender movie. Unspeakably bad.

The DCU, especially that version of Superman. Just total misunderstanding of the character.

Edited 2025-06-26 23:50 (UTC)

What don't you like about the new Poirot movies?

Re: Favorite/Least Favorite Adaptions

meadowphoenix - 2025-06-27 00:44 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Favorite/Least Favorite Adaptions

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 00:50 (UTC) - Expand

World War Z was horrible and I'm sad we will probably never get a faithful adaptation. I also really hated the The Giver adaptation. Just....awful.

The Schindler's List movie was great. The book is good but can be a bit of a slog. My Sister's Keeper completely changed the ending of the book and made it 100 times better.

I despised the Netflix show. And I wouldn’t have cared at all except the showrunner and studio both invested a lot of time and money into promoting it as a faithful adaptation. I’m super happy that it will ultimately go down as a major failure and the showrunner’s reputation is damaged.

Re: The Witcher

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 00:14 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The Witcher

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 00:19 (UTC) - Expand

Favourites:
LoTR for an obvious one:
I love the books but they aren't the easiest thing to get through and there are parts of the books I don't care for that I preferred the change of in the movies. One: giving Arwen more of a character and not just turning up at the end to marry Aragorn along with her speech in Rivendell.

There are some bits of the movies I don't jive with, Gimli being mostly a burping joke factory for one and the Legolas+Gimli friendship is very toned down in the movies. But I largely enjoyed what they decided to do with the tone they went for and I think most of the changes make sense.

Mid fave, as in I liked them as movies but they missed some marks as adaptations:
The Hobbit movies:
An obvious crit: should have been 2 at most but irrc they were meant to be, got pushed into 3 and it messed up the pacing in movie 2 and 3. I think they're still decent given all the production mess that happened bts(theatrical BoFA is eeeeh, but extended is better imo). But there are bits I'd change and bits from the book I'd have included that weren't, because for the most part they do stick to the book, they just add scenes or take scenes that would be 5 secs long and expand them. But I love The Company as characters, I cry every time I watch Thorin die and given that they lost Del Torro as 1st director I think they made the correct choice to not ape his style and instead bring it in-line with the LoTR movies.

Idk man I just love middle-earth and the casting was fantastic. Also Smaug, my child.

In the same vein: Rings of Power.
I quite enjoyed the series, I'm looking forward to more but I also have my gripes with bits of it as they deviate in a way that makes me tilt my head(why the fuck does Gandalf not know who he is or how to use his magic???). But I love a lot of the characters and I want to see Numenor fall into the sea SO FUCKING BAD, lol. Also watching Sauron manipulate Celebrimbor? Yes thank you I'd like another.

The 2000's Hellboy movies:
Absolutely fantastically fun movies, they are however really not great as adaptations as they miss the mark on various bits of the setting. But the characters are so fun, and sure HB/Liz is not a thing AT ALL in the comics, but fuck it they're cute I don't care.

Couldn't stand:
World War Z. There's changing things to make it easier to work on-screen and then there's... that. It should have been a mini-series because it would work perfectly for it, a new PoV character each episode as an anthology? Yes! But alas.

The 2019 Hellboy movie:
Which is funny as fuck to me because it's more comic accurate and yet it was worse??? It mostly just felt like an excuse to be a gore-fest with Hellboy slapped on to it, and it was such a shame because I was looking forward to it but I didn't like it at all.

Otherwise I'm pretty chill with adaptations and will likely enjoy them as they're separate thing. I either won't know there was a source material, or I can usually roll with the changes making something on-screen necessitates.

Re: Favorite/Least Favorite Adaptions

philstar22 - 2025-06-27 03:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Favorite/Least Favorite Adaptions

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 18:11 (UTC) - Expand

Least favorite is the film version for Sophie Kinsella's book Can You Keep a Secret?. It's one of my all-time favorite books and I was thrilled when I heard they were going to make a movie, but they made way too many changes (including the bit where the MC finally stands up to her manipulative bitch of a cousin) and cut out my favorite supporting character. At least the two lead actors were hot and had good chemistry.

Good: The Princess Bride, Lord of the Rings, Forrest Gump and To Kill a Mockingbird

Mid but I still like it: 12 Angry Men and The Lovely Bones

Worst: The Girl on the Train

Least favorite is the BBC/Netflix Watership Down adaptation. Whoever decided that what the book about rabbits needed is a goddamn *romance subplot* needs to be slapped. The animated adaptation wasn't perfect but at least largely got the spirit right and didn't do shit like taking away major moments from other characters because we need ~romance~, I'm just really salty that they took the moment when Fiver finds Hazel after the farm raid, which the animated movie used for the famous Bright Eyes sequence, and gave it to Clover instead because again, useless added romance subplot. The miniseries also just doesn't get Hazel's arc during the trek to Watership at all, instead of being an unexpectedly strong leader who makes decisions he just constantly dithers and whimpers and doubts himself to the point it makes absolutely no sense that the miniseries version of these rabbits would name him Chief Rabbit, he didn't do anything! Or how they made Strawberry a girl but kept in the part where Strawberry did a lot to help dig the new warren so instead of the rabbits learning to do things outside their nature to survive -- normally male rabbits don't dig, and the initial group has no females -- it just becomes the girl bunny does girl bunny things (I once described it as 'imagine a book where a bunch of guys who always had their mom around to make them sandwiches go off on their own and have to learn to make their own sandwiches, and then the adaptation makes one a girl and treats it as a girlboss moment when she goes into the kitchen and makes sandwiches for all the boys'). Or how I finally get an adaptation that includes my favorite rabbit, Bluebell, and makes him into a complete idiot bumbling side character.

Favorite - the 1980s Anne of Green Gables adaptations. It kept the spirit of the books, had some excellent casting, and cut out the slightly repetitive parts. (We don't need to see Anne win over quite so many local curmudgeons.) There'll never be another Anne Shirley for me, Megan Followes was it.

Re: Favorite/Least Favorite Adaptions

philstar22 - 2025-06-27 03:33 (UTC) - Expand

Holes is a top-tier adaptation.

Re: Favorite/Least Favorite Adaptions

(Anonymous) - 2025-06-27 03:19 (UTC) - Expand

Ok, lets do this:

BBC America's "The Watch". That his daughter let it happen was... Unforgivable.

The Kenneth Branagh "Halloween Party" adaption (Venice something). All his Poirots fail to some degree, but TINA FUCKING FEY as Ariadne Oliver, and Ms Oliver BETRAYING Poirot... Fucking disgusting.

The new Lilo and Stitch. Obviously going after any of the Disney Live actions is low hanging fruit and completely beneath me, but this one is special...

Anything by Adi Shankar. (Except Laundry day. Can't deny him his props there, but everything else has been horrible) The man is the Uwe Boll for the 2020's. And at LEAST Uwe Boll had the excuse he was doing a "springtime for Hitler" tax scam.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only