Originally Posted by Ustwo

I don't expect movies to mirror the book.

You just can't take a 400 page book and turn it into a two hour movie.

What I don't understand though is why they change things which do NOT need to be changed. Character personalities, stupid subplots, complete reworking of the central themes, all of which added nothing.

I think part of it is ineptitude. It really takes a great director to turn a book into a reasonable film that captures the essence of a book, most directors, are not great ones. I think the other part is directors want to play artist and make it 'theirs' its MY interpretation of this book. They might not even have understood the book but damn they are going to make it how it SHOULD have been.

Starship Troopers was a political book, the movie, well it had bugs and the name.

Jurassic Park wasn't a deep book but it was an interesting scenario with character development. The movie had black and white characters, most of which didn't match their counterparts in the books even remotely.

Dune....dear god enough said.

Its not even that the movies are 'bad' its that they didn't need to be what they were, they could be good and keep a least close to the book.