Tag: Book vs Movie

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Book vs Movie Books Movie/Pop Culture

Ready Player One Book vs Movie: What Got Lost in Translation

Estimated Reading Time: 11min

It’s time! Book vs Movie, and I finally got around to Ready Player One. I have been sitting on this one for a while, but after watching half the movie, I was forced to halt it out of annoyance. So, let’s talk about it. Before we do though, spoilers! You’ve been warned.

The Ready Player One movie was drastically different than the book. Some of the decisions I understood for logistics purposes, and others… I don’t quite know what the point was. Let’s go over some of the major differences, and then decide which won the battle – the book, or the movie.

The Biggest Difference: The Team Dynamic

The way the “team” found each other was interesting. The book was clear (on many occasions) that the hunt for the keys and the egg was a solo venture. There weren’t many teams or clans that got together for the honour, it was everyone for themselves. In the movie, they were a team from almost the beginning. They somehow already knew Daito and Shoto, and they worked together in the online world (The Oasis) and the real world. This was a large difference from the book. Wade spends almost the entire book by himself in the real world, and sometimes engaging with the other players in the Oasis. There was no kidnapping in the book, and the team did not meet IRL like that, especially not so early on. I will say, this made sense if you wanted to give the real life actors more chance to actually have screen time as themselves, but it was still quite a difference.

The Challenges Were Completely Changed

Timelines are always screwed up in the movies, sometimes because of condensing for a 1.5-2 hour movie, and sometimes because they wanted to focus on something specific from the book that they could delve into for the film medium. This one had things placed in very unusual spots. For example, talking about artefacts very early on, when it wasn’t really relevant yet and the book didn’t bring it up for a long time afterwards.

The challenges themselves were ALL different. Nothing from the original book challenges survived. No car races in the book, no Shining anythings, and the game challenge at the very end, while closer than the others, was still wrong. There was nothing about the challenges in the movie that was bad, they were just pointlessly different. The whole idea of the book is to geek out about video games, but the movie shied away from this for some reason. There were some really cool things in the book that would have been great in a movie, like the characters having to act out specific movies to get to a certain place… they just didn’t decide to include them.

What the Movie Added (and Changed)

Some things were very movie specific, like Wade’s fame, Clark Kent glasses disguise, Artemis’ dad’s backstory, and the fact that Daito and Shoto were actually present IRL. In the book, they’re in another country so this doesn’t really translate (but again, for the sake of human actors being in film as themselves, it makes sense). Super spoiler, but not all the characters actually survive IRL in the book – the movie decided on the Hollywood ending where everyone lives. I also didn’t feel like the movie spent enough time with Wade and Samatha (Artemus) for the ‘love’ storyline to feel real. The book happened over a lot longer period, with the characters spending a lot more time together (granted, most of it was in the OASIS and they didn’t actually meet for real until almost the end of the whole book).

The movie also saw a lot more from Sorrento’s POV. We got a lot of his side of things, actually, in the film. Not a bad thing, and it certainly added drama, though the ending was a little… unnecessary in my opinion. (We’ll come back to the ending in a bit)

The IOI & Indenture Storyline

The IOS indenture situation was insanely different. The point of this in the book was that Wade specifically got a ton of debt so he could get pulled into that ‘prison system’ and hack them from the inside to be able to shut them down and win. For some reason, the movie decided that Artemus should be the one to be pulled into that, and certainly not on purpose to hack anything. Then, when she was inside but free, she decided to stay and work from the inside to help them in the big battle at the end. This was nowhere in the book. Another example of the movie taking elements from the book and twisting it into something pretty different. It was almost like watching shadows of the real story, but pulled into something new.

The old business partner of Halliday (Og) was interesting. In the book, he grabs the people IRL and helps them by giving them a safe place to try and get the final key (and thus, the egg) because he believed in the idea behind the game. The stakes for the kids winning was a lot higher in the book, and thus, his help was a lot more meaningful. In contrast, he’s barely in the movie and really only pops up towards the end (or at least, you see him pop up). Not sure why they made this change.

Let’s Talk About the Ending

Now, let’s talk about the two main elements of the ending: The van chase, and the way that Wade won the whole thing.

The Van: I don’t know why there was a van chase in the movie, instead of them being able to get away from the Sixers who were trying to kill them and just focus on playing the final part of the challenge. I suppose, drama. It felt oddly unnecessary though.

Wade’s Extra Life: Now, in the book there is an artefact that is used which basically wipes out everyone in the vicinity and they’re dead. Like, dead, dead. You have to start again from nothing in the Oasis after that. This was the Sixers final death blow if they thought they couldn’t win, and someone else was going to. Like a nuke. Earlier in the book, Wade finds a pac-man machine. He’s hoping it was relevant to the game, but turns out the only thing he did after winning a perfect game, was get a coin that didn’t make sense. It didn’t seem to do anything and wasn’t related to the game at all. That coin, was an extra life. It saved him from the ‘nuke’ and he was able to get the last key when everyone else had died. I am impressed that the film still kept a version of this, however, the way he was given the coin waaaaaay back in the film, was so random that it wasn’t even something that entered your mind as relevant. At least in the book, you could store away that he had a coin that he didn’t understand from the Pac-man machine. This was just such a throw away moment in the movie that when this was revealed, it actually made me mad, rather than say ‘ooooh I see what you did there’.

The ending with the bad guys IRL, the way the team all lived, how things ended up afterwards, even the interaction with Halliday in the Oasis… it was all different but with no real reason that I could see as to why. Why change it? Who knows. Because you could, I suppose.

Final Verdict: Book vs Movie

So, those were some of the major things different and contrasting from the book to the movie. It was almost like watching something unrelated to each other. I don’t know why some of the changes and choices were made… but they were.

The book actually hooked me in, I was engaged and loved the little geek references that were scattered throughout. I actually felt the danger and the stakes were high and understood. The relationships were earned, and felt better rounded. Honestly, the book was WAY better than the movie. If I wasn’t going to do this post, I wouldn’t have finished the film. For the sake of science, however, I have done it just for you.

Grab the book Here

Have you watched the movie or read the book (or both)? What did you think? Am I on the money, or totally wrong? Share your thoughts.

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

Categories
Book vs Movie Books Movie/Pop Culture

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book vs Movie: Two Very Different Moral Worlds

Estimated Reading Time 4min

Okay, I finally read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for first time! After liking the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film, and hating the Johnny Depp version I thought it was time to see what the book had to offer originally.

There were a few differences that I noticed between the book and the movies. I will say now, that mostly I am comparing to the Gene Wilder (GW) version of the film (as I actually like that one), but I might mention the Johnny Depp (JD) version on occasion as well.

I like that Wonka seems a lot more likeable in the book. He had more of a lighthearted attitude and relationship from the films. The GW Wonka was a bit more brusk in moments to make sure he was really choosing the right successor, and the JD was way more creepy. I also enjoyed things that were different with the kids and how they ended up being drawn into the factory. For example, Veruca Salts parents were also down the rubbish chute with her, because a kids spoilt behaviour is acutally not entirely their fault. Someone has to spoil them in the first place. I like that the book dared to say things like that!

Timelines were a little different, like when the group and Mike TV went into the TV room or glass elevators. Also interesting, was the GW scene where Charlie and Grandpa Joe snuck into the bubble room, this was nowhere in the book. No Slugworth “test” to see if they could keep company secrets, but there are more books to my recollection, so maybe they brought it in for the GW film?

I have to say, the Oompa Loompas seemed a lot more cheeky in the book, and more mysterious in the film. Their origin was really explored in the JD film, but even then I think they just had more cheek and less seriousness in the book. I really liked that, and maybe because they were so interesting and unlike the other characters (all humans), I would have loved to have seen and heard more.

A few final thoughts: I missed the songs they added into the film. JD was MILES away from what the book portrays Wonka as, but that is somewhat on the shoulders of Tim Burton though, as he was the director. He always seems to like doing really creepy stuff… I don’t know why.

Well, those are my thoughts, but if you read the book as a kid and loved it, or watched either of the films, what was your favourite part?

See You in the Adventures!
Christy Grace

Categories
Book vs Movie Books Movie/Pop Culture

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Why the Film Outgrew Its Source Inspiration

Estimated Reading Time 5min

Okay, so I might be late on the bandwagon, but why did nobody tell me that Marvel did a series of books based on the movies!?

I recently decided to read the Captain America: Winter Solider book as part of a “basic theme” reading challenge (the theme being a season of the year). And what I discovered was that I couldn’t resist comparing the book to the film itself!

I’ve also made Book Vs Movie videos on my CGSP youtube channel, but I wanted this one to just be between us – and potentially I will keep doing the other books and movies if you guys like it…?

Anyway, here were my initial thoughts on the book itself:

  • It feels very much like a movie not a book (they have distinct differences)
  • It was nice to get some level of internal dialogue, but it still felt too movie-esqu
  • It was clear they were trying to stick very close to the movie plot and script, so that felt like a bit of a cop out – why bother with a book if you aren’t going to properly adapt it to follow the book format/style?
  • The story and dialogue was funny
  • The fight scenes were a little soft and uninteresting
  • It felt very rushed – the pace of the movie vs the book seemed to be condensed in the book rather than the film (the opposite when a movie is based on a book rather than this way around)

So, after reading the book came the moment of truth – rewatching the film to compare. Here are the differences, similarities and what I felt was done worse or better:

  • I liked the Sam/Cap meeting at the beginning better in the book. It was more fleshed out and felt a lot more meaningful
  • The book overall felt quicker, and things didn’t punch the same as they did in the film
  • On the flip side, the parts of the book that felt more drawn out, were the parts that felt quickest in the film (eg. the conversations rather than action)
  • The people who created this book did a cut and paste – particularly with the dialogue. They didn’t even seem to attempt (except for the small amount of inner dialogue that did pop up from time to time) to follow a book format
  • The character of Sitwell seemed less like a geek in the book (no offense intened)
  • The actual fight scenes took a lot more time on screen and got a lot less description of these in the book.
  • Those fight scenes weren’t very well written and described, and it felt like the writer decided that if people knew the movie or wanted to understand the fight more, they could watch the movie – and that would explain everything (spoiler, it didn’t). There is a way to write fighting scenes amazingly, but this wasn’t it
  • There is a particular nuance that you get with an acing performance – something that comes across in facial and body movement choices – that you don’t get with the written word. This is why it can be amazing, but also annoying. Books have inner dialogue, movies have good actors. Unfortunately for the book, the actors were better than the writer of the novel
  • The “danger” scenes didn’t feel as life threatening or exciting in the book, as they were in the movie – part of this is because you can do amazing things with the visual medium that you can’t do in a book, while other is due to (I believe) the above points made

Overall, it was so clear this book was written as a copy and paste of the film. It could have been awesome – given some insight into aspects we didn’t see in the film, or done some really cool things, but it chose not to. It chose instead to basically word for word record the dialogue, and poorly copy in the fight scenes and moments of the book. Shame.

Do you agree with my analysis? What’s your favourite part of Captain America: Winter Soldier? Comment and let us all know!

See You in the Adventures
Christy Grace