List your best film adaptations

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Okay, as an antidote to sluice's thread listing the worst film adaptations (here: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt142483.html), I've decided to post a thread that reverses this: what film adaptations, regardless of whether it is of a book, graphic novel, or TV series, are the best?

Well, let me see here...

The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson version):

Okay, say what you like, but I think, to borrow a phrase from Gilbert and Sullivan, that Peter Jackson's version of The Lord of the Rings is the very model of a modern novel adaptation. I think that the Tolkien fanboys who complain about what got left out and what got put in have to realise that one, this was a mammoth undertaking, and two, they had to translate a very unconventional book into something for the screen. That they succeeded beyond all expectations beggars belief.


Casino Royale (Daniel Craig version)

Having read the novel, I have to say that this is one of the very few adaptations where the films is far better than the novel. Daniel Craig is brilliant as Bond, not to mention Mads Mikkelsen as Le Chiffre and Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. This is Bond as he is meant to be, a human being underneath the blunt instrument trappings.


Jurassic Park

I feel that they only screwed one thing up majorly: making Donald Genarro a cowardly pants-filler. The rest of this adaptation was excellent.


Let the Right One In/Let Me In

Both films take the essence of the original novel, and while at first glance they seem similar, there are differences beyond the obvious of the American remake's more overt violence. The original is more atmospheric and understated, but the remake does succeed in making Oskar's equivalent, Owen, more overtly screwed up than in the original, and the protector seems more human in the remake.


V for Vendetta

While not concentrating on the themes of anarchy as much as the original comic, and not as convoluted, there is much to recommend this version, not least Hugo Weaving as V and Natalie Portman as Evey Hammond.


Watchmen

Zack Snyder managed to film the unfilmable, and the fact that it is a competent movie as well as an adaptation is remarkable. Not the best that could have been done with Watchmen, but without doing it as a miniseries, I doubt that it can be done better.

Oh, bugger, and I forgot to add my favourite adaptation of all time...

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984 version)

John Hurt as Winston Smith. Richard Burton as O'Brien. Suzanna Hamilton as Julia. Bleak, uncompromising, dark, and no happy ending. This is Nineteen Eighty-Four as it should be.

the millenium trilogi.
Adapted from the books by Stieg Larson. With the very talanted Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander.

Harry Potter 2001-2009 (so far)

I have loved every single one of the films, although The Half Blood Prince wasn't as focused as the last films, but I'd still give it an 8 out of 10 (I rate everything). They could almost not get any better than they could have been, except that they missed out big chunks of the books. But could they really fit it all in? The books grew like a centimetre each time!

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut 1999

My favourite animated film of all time, it is absolutely hilarious, very rude and crude and stays true to the TV series, which has continued better than ever for 14 years! The soundtrack is amazing 10/10

I think the Shining and 2001 were brilliant representations of their respective novels.

Fight Club
A very rare instance where the movie was better than the book, even though the script was almost verbatim

Alice in Wonderland (2010)
I know that this film failed to meet a lot of people's expectations, but I've been absolutely in love with it ever since I saw it when it first came to theaters. I'm even having an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party this year! I feel that this film achieved exactly what Tim Burton was aiming for - to create a coherent plot out of a nonsense story and make you feel for the characters.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
This was another Tim Burton film that I was obsessed with earlier this year. I watched it so many times that I know most of the script by heart. The only reason why I loved this film so much was because of Johnny Depp's portrayal of Willy Wonka. He made me laugh, and I found his androgynous appearance to be highly attractive.

Disagreed. It was by no means a bad film, it was visually spectacular and many of the performances were entertaining, but Mia Wasikowska was a non-event, the story was a mess (but I will grant you, better than the bloody original story!) and Burton criminally underutilised Michael Gough and Christopher Lee!



While I didn't find his androgynous, Michael Jacksonesque appearance at all attractive, I felt that making him a child-fearer with daddy issues, while risky, was a brave step that payed off, even though it wasn't in the novels. And they brought the story closer to the original story, compared to the seventies version.

I usually can't stand adaptations, but some are decent or even good

I liked:

Let the Right One In (Swedish version)

1984

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Perfume - maybe the only film I've ever seen that perfectly captures the book

Contact - although it didn't stay 100% true to the book, it was mostly right on target (I actually read the book after seeing the film) - very thought provoking, both the film and the novel.

Gettysburg - based on the novel "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara that won the Purlitzer Prize, very well done and acted and stuck with the book almost page for page.

I personally adored Mia Wasikowska. My mom often compares me to Alice and has even said that she and I are soulmates. I personally don't see how the story was a mess; I understood everything, but my sister said it confused her. But then again, the difference between us was that I have put loads of research into the background of the film while she went right into it thinking it was just another straight-up adaptation of the book like the 1951 cartoon version was.

From what little of Christopher Lee I've seen in Tim Burton's films, he seems like a wonderful actor. Someone once recommended that I watch the Hammer Horror films. Have you seen any of them, Quatermass?

It wasn't that it was confusing as much as cliched and messy. I preferred reading The Looking-Glass Wars. Burton should have adapted that instead. It would have been more interesting.



No (with one exception: the recent remake of Let the Right One In, Let Me In was a Hammer Film). Horror's not normally my thing, although I have contemplated watching the first Dracula film with Lee (as well as Peter Cushing and Michael Gough, both of whom have connections to Doctor Who).

All I have seen and heard of Lee are from more recent works, with the exception of The Man With The Golden Gun (Lee as Scaramanga was the best thing in that damn film). I have seen him as Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, Dr Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and DiZ/Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts II (this being perhaps the most morally complex character I have seen him play, even if it was just a voiceover). But he has impressed in all of those roles, even those smaller ones, and two lines for a CG creature (in other words, the Jabberwocky) isn't a good use of his talent.

I really disagree with this. I thought this was an utter failure. The performances were anemic and unegaging, the casting was dreadful, the pacing was tedious, the whole thing felt uninspired. It didn't seem to me that Snyder had any idea how to bring this to film, and he completely hit all the wrong notes with the subversiveness of the Watchmen series, sucking out all the real appeal of it. And it was ugly to look at. I don't mean gritty or dark, but badly conceived in a visual way. A lot of things could have been done much, much better. Did we see the same film?

Kickass. It was actually a lot better that the comic book off of which it was based.

Even though it was not a 100% literal adaption, I loved the movie version of James Elroy's L.A. Confidential.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I didn't think it was cliche or messy at all. Then again, I'm not much of a film connoisseur; I spent my childhood and teen years being obsessed with anime so the only cliches I'm familiar with are ones particular to Japanese entertainment. In a way, I'm glad; if I had been as familiar with regular film cliches as you are, I wouldn't have enjoyed Alice in Wonderland nearly as much. So you think he should have adapted The Looking Glass Wars. Well, other people think he should have adapted American McGee's Alice. Personally, I love Burton's film just the way it is. If I'm the only person in the world who is this passionate about his version of Alice in Wonderland, then so be it.