Adaptations can be good if they follow the source material as closely as possible. It gets bad when you have people take the basics and run away with it, which unfortunately is what we are now getting. There’s 2 points that you need to hit when making a good adaptation: those being a good adaptation, and good media. A lot of movie adaptations fail because they don’t meet either or only just half meet one. The order of importance of these 2 categories really depends on a lot of factors.
I’m going to rate some examples on adaptation A (how well they stuck to the source material) and media (just whether it is a good media. Acting, directing, writing etc).
Lord of the Rings: The LOTR films are some of, if not the best examples of book to movie adaptations done right. Not only did they follow as closely as they could to the source material, but they also cared about making them good movies anyway. A/M score 100/100
Harry Potter: The HP films are the same case as The LOTR films, where both the adaptation side and media side are done well. They stuck as closely as they could to the source material, whilst also making them good movies. A good thing they did with the HP films is as the books got released, they followed the material closer. A/M score 90/100
Comic book adaptations: Now, unfortunately, we are getting into a subject that I am very close to, comic books. Comic book adaptations never reach the LOTR status of 100/100. It’s just a rule. The biggest names in movie adaptations are Marvel and DC. I’m going to go in depth into Marvel, since they are more popular, and everybody already knows how DC aren’t really that good. However, DC has been getting better, except for The Flash movie. That’s not come out yet. Now, from Iron Man 2008 to Avengers: Endgame 2019 Marvel were the kings, never having gone below 70 in either category, however since then, it’s gotten much worse, now rarely getting past 40. However, there are a few diamonds in the rough. The unfortunate thing with not just Marvel, but comic book adaptations nowadays, is that the studios would much rather care about pleasing the masses, rather than the target audience who have loved the comics. Overall, I simply cannot rate this new wave of Marvel as one, rather just give examples of the best and worst, and my ratings for them.
FFH 82/100. Shang Chi 84/100. GOTG 3 93/100. Ant Man 3 74/90. She Hulk 4/7. Moon Knight 40/70. Loki 67/90. Eternals 17/20
Animated: Now, the best on screen adaptations of comic books are always animated, whether that be movie or TV show. Unlike the movies, DC are the kings of animation when it comes to adaptation. My personal belief as to why this is, is that animation is closer to the source material, which in of itself is extremely unrealistic, and you can get away with that when it comes to animation. Now there really isn’t a point in me rating animated shows and movies since they are all incredible. So I’m going to go ahead and list some shows and movies that I, as a comic book nerd, recommend: Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, X-Men animated show, X-Men Evolution, Justice League, Spider-Man Animated Show and Into The Spider-verse.
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