I LOVE Alfonso Cuarón’s sci-fi action movie Children of Men. I’ve watched maybe six times and every time, the ending always almost brings me to tears. So when I learned it was adapted from P.D. James’ book of the same name, it was a no-brainer deciding what my next book would be.
After finishing the book, it wasn’t difficult to reach to the conclusion that I enjoyed the movie better.
While James’ book gives a more in-depth look at how human infertility and humanity’s slow death march towards extinction affects the sexual dynamic between men and women and almost demented ways humans try to cope with a world without children or a race of dead men walking, I feel the book dedicates WAY too much time describing the failing of human civilization and the Regrets and guilt of Theo Faron. It’s not even until after 2/3 through the book where it feels like the plot and story are properly paced and stuff of consequence actually begin to happen.
The film’s adaptation by, comparison, feels consistent in its pacing and the world building and woe-is-mes of Theo feel more compact a take up less of the audience’s time.
What books do you feel were worse than its film adaptation and why?
Clockwork Orange, sort of.
The book is all about building up to the last chapter.
The movie does an astonishingly brilliant and brutal job with everything else. And I don’t blame Kubrik for the ending. It fit better for a movie.
But the last chapter is the best part of the book. It was left out entirely.
So it’s an odd situation.
Note: For those who don’t know, the first section of the book is about the MC being a deeply horrible human being because he was basically taught “that’s what life is”.
The second part of the book is where he’s conditioned to be incapable of violence.
The movie is basically the same thing.
But in the last chapter of the book, the character experiences genuine free will. He can choose to be violent or not. It’s genuinely the point of the whole book.
Yet, somehow, the movie is brilliant (and better) without this.