I LOVE Alfonso Cuarón’s sci-fi action movie Children of Men. I’ve watched maybe six times and every time, the ending always almost brings me to tears. So when I learned it was adapted from P.D. James’ book of the same name, it was a no-brainer deciding what my next book would be.
After finishing the book, it wasn’t difficult to reach to the conclusion that I enjoyed the movie better.
While James’ book gives a more in-depth look at how human infertility and humanity’s slow death march towards extinction affects the sexual dynamic between men and women and almost demented ways humans try to cope with a world without children or a race of dead men walking, I feel the book dedicates WAY too much time describing the failing of human civilization and the Regrets and guilt of Theo Faron. It’s not even until after 2/3 through the book where it feels like the plot and story are properly paced and stuff of consequence actually begin to happen.
The film’s adaptation by, comparison, feels consistent in its pacing and the world building and woe-is-mes of Theo feel more compact a take up less of the audience’s time.
What books do you feel were worse than its film adaptation and why?
The Bourne Identity.
It’s extremely slow, and he kidnapped a woman, slapped her a few times, threatened to kill her, later saved her from a rapist and voila she fell in love with him.
lol, correct, that’s pretty close to the start of the book and it is total cringe. There is some good stuff in the books but I had to give up I think in the middle of book three where there’s quadruple-crossing spy stuff going on with Carlos the jackal and his invisible army of homeless people. The films pretty much took the name “Bourne” and did their own thing that is nothing like the books. In the books if irc Bourne is already a kinda semi-retired spy with specialization in oriental languages. Nothing like the films at all.
I don’t remember reading that in my print of the book?
I read the book first and found the movie dumbed down in comparison.
See, I liked the book (the first one only). I did not care for the movies.
They didn’t just leave stuff out, they utterly removed the entire plot.
That said, Ludlum got tiring REALLY fast. There’s only so many times you can tolerate reading the main character think, “Cain is for Charlie and Delta is for Cain!”