Does the Source Material Matter? "Creative Topic" #19
"Creative Topic" #19: Does the Source Material Matter?
As a person who likes to enjoy all main storytelling forms of entertainment whether it’s reaching from music, to movies, books, video games, television, or whatever, you tend to notice those times when a series cross branches with another. Although some of these like the latest comic book movie adaptation boom, I do know the source material a lot of these, and it’s usually things turning into movies. Books, video games, cartoons, they get turned into movies, and it’s always different. Whether they fucked it all up and have a bad source material, and a shit movie, or a decent stand alone movie but bad adaptation, or if they do both. And I feel no, they shouldn’t have to be an adaptation of something. If the book or whatever was great, it’s great in its own way, and movies like Harry Potter and Lord of Rings have to change a certain amount when changing a completely different media. But this doesn’t always happen. The Lighting Thief couldn’t have cared less about it’s source material, and became a big money maker, cashing in on a book title while also trying to be the next Harry Potter. That or in the case of the Mortal Instruments movie that came out (of course I haven’t seen it, this is based off reviews I’ve see/read) they didn’t care about the source material yet again, and just made a movie trying to be Twilight. And Twilight is a good example of a bad source material getting a good adaptation, but only to please the fans, when there was a lot of things they could have done a lot better. And as a reviewer, I think knowing the source material completely changes your perspective. You don’t have to read the book to review a movie, and you don’t have to watch a movie to read a book. If something was "explained in the book” and they don’t explain it in the movie, that doesn’t make it any better. So what if Rick Riordan explained why Olympus was in America, the movie didn’t, and it’s suppose to be its own stand alone entertainment, and should have done that. But movies aren’t the only source material, I have a whole creative topic already related the video game movies. And although there are exceptions, and possibly will be in the future, video game movies are mostly heartless cash buckets waiting to take the money of everyone who wanted to see their games in a new form. The Resident Evil movies for instance have their own spin on all of this. Sometimes there is a adaptation that has little to nothing to do with the source material, so at that point is its own stand alone thing all together? Does being good even matter when the source material isn’t even there, let alone respected? Sometimes it works like I Am Legend (which from reading the first couple chapters of the book I’ve read seems completely different) But that was good as its own thing, the Resident Evil movies hardly ever do. And I think the reason we like these things is because even if it’s bad, it’s fun to talk about, and it’s interesting. Seeing Percy Jackson on a big screen, even if not Percy Jackson, is still worth seeing, even if it isn’t good. Seeing Shyamalan wipe his ass with the Last Airbender, it’s still worth seeing. And for that last example, sometimes they already did it so perfect, why does it need another adaptation? Just to see it go from animation to live action? Is that worthy of an adaptation? I guess that’s just a question. But I think my conclusion on the whole thing is this: They are completely different, and all have their own little twists. You can’t hold it for not having something, it’s different for a reason. But there is something that is almost necessary. Respecting the source material. Whether it’s making sure all the characters are getting their moments, capturing the themes, or just even snagging a line or two from the book. As long as you are respecting the source material, make something good, it’s all fine by me. If not, oh well, you still have the source material, which is looking better by how awful the adaptation is.
