First impressions of The Rings of Power as social media embargo lifts

[ADigitalArtist]

I've seen a few that stuck to it pretty well.

I think it works very well for some types of stories. Gone Girl was an excellent adaptation and deviated very little from the book. But its harder when you have a lot of characters with robust inner monologs or are large enough in scope where direct translations would take more time than film could include without running too long and getting bogged down in unimportant side stories.

 

[SomeRandom]

True, but my mind sees differences like it would if someone had a rotting thumb dripping puss. Unless it's the paragraphs of describing trees or mountains or clouds. I do want a good picture in my head, but I don't need every feeling invoked by every different shade and hue of a rising sun and the exact appearance of the clouds and how they change the already overly elaborate landscape.

I take it then that you tend to be a “literalist” in terms of adaptations?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I take it then that you tend to be a “literalist” in terms of adaptations?

I tend to see them as the best.
However, it's not a hard thing. Like the Castlevania series on Netflix. It hits nearly all the game lore (they completely changed Isaac and it actually did work to make him Middle Eastern and possibly Muslim rather than leave him as a whackass weirdo anime character, and also did make the Curse of Darkness game impossible), but there's not a whole lot of lore to pull from and they had to take great lengths to do a connect-the-dots sort of adaptation to put everything together, and they did it so well they made Dracula into a tragic hero in ways the games never really explored even though it's been underneath the surface of the story for a long time now.
Interview with the Vampire I did mostly like, however I did feel completely altering their trip, though understandable, did reduce the mystery of Rice's vampire mythos and the trial scene just totally changes things (it wasn't in the movie). And Louis wasn't nearly as tragic because his story was largely cut from the movie. Good movie, but that's how my mind works and I'll always wish that trial scene made it to the movie.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I think it works very well for some types of stories. Gone Girl was an excellent adaptation and deviated very little from the book. But its harder when you have a lot of characters with robust inner monologs or are large enough in scope where direct translations would take more time than film could include without running too long and getting bogged down in unimportant side stories.

There is no such thing as too long in this post-Abyss, LotR, Hobbit and the Batman world.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

There is no such thing as too long in this post-Abyss, LotR, Hobbit and the Batman world.

I liked exactly half of the things you mentioned and one of them I liked but still felt it could have been a half hour shorter. xD

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

The issue with Tolkien is that the Silmarillion and other writings are not stories like the Hobbit and LOTR trilogy. Most of it is written in various verse forms or as summary describing what he was wanting to write verse about.