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They Changed It, Now It Sucks/Film: Difference between revisions
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* [[Roger Ebert]] made a [http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19881030/PEOPLE/10010305 case for why Black & White films should not be colorized pretty much saying the same thing].
** Well, he does kinda have a point, especially the part where he says that choosing the right colors is basically [[Wild Mass Guessing]].
** [[Orson Welles]] allegedly exclaimed, "Tell Ted Turner to keep his crayons away from [[Citizen Kane|my movie]]!"
* This phenomenon has caused many ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fans to have the exact opposite reaction to the film adaptations as many critics do. While film critics generally agree that the films got better from ''[[Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' (largely because of [[Dave McKean]]'s art direction), when they stopped being obsessively faithful to every single scene and line of dialogue in the books, a lot of fans think that [[Chris Columbus]] was doing a bang-up job and that ever since then it's been garbage, with ''Azkaban'' the worst offender ("They left out the Fidelius Charm! They left out the Marauders' backstory! Harry gets the Firebolt at the ''end''! Nyaaaargh!!!"). Never mind that, with the length of the books spiraling out of control, ''something'' had to be cut. Even if the [[Compressed Adaptation|removed stuff]] [[Adaptation-Induced Plothole|gets]] [[All There in the Manual|non-readers]] [[Continuity Lock Out|lost]].
** Part of the problem here is likely ''what'' they chose to change and ''how'' they chose to change it. If you tell an audience that there's just not enough time to get into every subplot from the books, they'll probably understand that. If you tell the audience that and then proceed to have long, loving pans of scenery while music plays and characters have a conversation ''they've already had before in that movie'', they're likely to call bullshit on you.
* If you need any more proof that following a book word by word isn't always a good plan compare BBC's [[Chronicles of Narnia]] and [[Walden Media]]'s more recent adaptation. The former uses the exact dialogue and is excruciatingly long and dull endeavor. The latter takes a more liberal approach at the storyline but does a much better at capturing the spirit of the books.
** Though in the process it is moving ever more steadily towards an [[In Name Only]] adaptation. They're still good, but they're becoming entirely different stories.
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* Way before [[Star Trek (film)|the 2009 Star Trek film]] came out, a [[Fan Dumb|segment]] of fans were already frothing at the mouth that the producers aren't exactly re-creating the crappy cardboard sets and cheesy 60's costumes of the original series (and I'm saying this as a Trekkie). Although it could also be down to [[The Other Darrin|the recasting of the original characters]], even though the cast are in their seventies and DeForest Kelley and James Doohan are dead, not to mention {{spoiler|Kirk was trapped in the Nexus for decades}} in ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'', even ''before'' his [[Dropped a Bridge on Him|bridge dropping]].
*** [http://www.theonion.com/content/video/trekkies_bash_new_star_trek_film This Onion News Network video] pretty accurately reflects the attitudes of longtime ''[[Star Trek]]'' fans towards [[Star Trek (film)|the new movie]].
** ''Every'' Star Trek movie has attracted this trope for some reason or another.
{{quote|[[Red Letter Media|Harry S. Plinkett]]: ''Star Trek: Generations'' is the stupidest movie ever made. It ruined everything; and not just Star Trek movies, but ''everything''.}}
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* The upcoming remake of ''The Warriors'' has fans in an uproar, even though almost no details about the film have been released. It's worth noting that the original movie was an adaptation of a novel, and not a particularly faithful one at that.
* ''[[Wanted]]'' may or may not be this trope. The original comic of the story presents all the characters as former super-villains who finally joined forces, kill all the [[Superhero|superheroes]], made humanity forget about them and rule the world from behind the scenes. The film adaptation is about a league of assassins killing people who could possibly become the next Hitler.
* ''[[The
** Adams was a merciless self-editor. During the radio show, one of the producers said that Adams would start the day with a full page of script and after working on it all day he would have half a page. He would rework a joke until it was razor sharp. It's pretty much a given that while he did write (at least some of) the film script, it was far from finished by his standards. Furthermore, the concept of the Hitchhiker's universe having ''anything'' that could legitimately be called Original Text is laughable at best.
*** First it was a series of radio shows, then the record came out, this was actually a re-recording of some of the radio show with a different script. Then some of the books came out which changed things again. Then there was the TV show which was an adaption of the first two books. There was a game realeased at about this time which was roughly based on the first book. Then some more books came out which somewhat contradicted some things established in previous books. Then there was an illustrated version of the first book which had one extra sentence added, making Zaphod black (despite him being blonde in earlier editions) All of this was done either directly by Adams or under his supervision, some say that the movie would never have come out if he was still alive as he would still be re-writing it.
** In-universe example is poet Lallafa, whose work was [[Dead Artists Are Better|re-discovered long after his death]] and was subsequently, through time travel, brought to future. This resulted in him not being actually able to write the poems, which is why he was sent back to past to copy them [[Stable Time Loop|so they could be discovered]]. Some argue that this makes his poems worse, while other argue they're the same.
*** Actually, what I believe happened is that Lallafa was so popular that his fans went back in time and found him, brought him to the "present" for chat-shows, interviews and such. Lallafa became such a celebrity that he never got around to writing his original poems so they had to lock him in a room one weekend with a later edition book of his work with some leaf-parchment so he could write his own poems that made him famous in the first place. These poems they sent back in time to be discovered. Also ironic was that Lallafa was a bitter poet ala Catullus (unrequited love, poverty, etc) but after being brought to the future to become a celebrity, he wasn't bitter at all. This was what caused the "poems don't mean as much now" argument.
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** Yet more fans complain that the DVD's "Original" version of ''The Lion King'' still has [http://www.ultimatedisney.com/thelionking2.html some differences] from the version presented in 1994, such as an updated Disney logo, redrawn crocodiles during "I Just Can't Wait to Be King", and a reanimated pollen cloud that no longer looks anything like [[Urban Legends|the word "sex"]]. Even though none of these changes affect the plot, some fans have accused Disney of "false advertising" for not telling them about the changes sooner.
* Fans of ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' are already complaining about the new movie and leaked plot details, going as far as to say that statements that the story is based on the comics (even coming from the comic writer Larry Hama himself) are out and out lies because: Ripcord is Black which is incompatible with stories Rip Cord had in the comics, Not everyone on the team is American, {{spoiler|Baroness had a relationship with Duke and Cobra Commander wasn't a used car salesman but rather a former soldier and a scientist who works for Destro in the first movie.}} They will ignore the numerous plot elements that come from the comics story, and decry "it's not based on it at all." One review actually began with the line "If it doesn't feature the line "Cobra, retreat!" then it isn't a GI Joe movie." Naturally, the phrase "real fan" showed up within two paragraphs...
* The ''[[Silent Hill (film)|Silent Hill]]'' movie. Changing the main character was, among other things, met with such a reaction by the fans.
* The ''[[Sherlock Holmes (film)|Sherlock Holmes]]'' film directed by [[Guy Ritchie]] has been criticized for making an action film out of the source material. This is despite the fact that there are a number of action sequences in the Sherlock Holmes adventures. Holmes is canonically a martial artist, fencer, etc. and Watson is an army veteran.
** Point of fact, it is only in later adaptations of the beloved characters that Watson was relegated to nothing more than foil, medic and narrator. Many instances in the original series have Watson physically helping Holmes fight off the villains, and is considered a crack shot better than Holmes.
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* The trailers for ''[[Percy Jackson and The Olympians|The Lightning Thief]]'' are out, and ''already'' the complaints are flying, particularly about Annabeth's hair being brown and, most of all, Grover being black. Hilariously, the complainers of the latter claims they're not racist, but the fact that the actor's race bugs them [[Hypocritical Humor|suggest]] [[Unfortunate Implications|otherwise]]. Just as you think people couldn't get any [[Fan Dumb|dumber]], there's a couple of people complaining about Percy being in an elevator - which was ''in the book''. And note that this movie is being directed by [[Chris Columbus]], who made the two most faithful films of the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' franchise.
** The actors' physical appearances really don't matter. They did, however, completely skip over several major plot points, including the ones that set up the overarching plot, and make Annabeth a not-particularly-smart generic girl and give her exactly one scene in which she does something even remotely helpful. They completely ignored the real villain of book one, making Hades evil (he isn't particularly evil in Percy Jackson or Greek mythology, but anyway) as well as Luke (who was), completely ignoring THE [[Big Bad]] of the series. And they also made Percy way too powerful from the start. No, he shouldn't be able to throw huge waves at people. Nor should he be able to beat Annabeth and like ''ten'' sons of ''Ares'' the first time he ever touched a sword. There were other problems, too. So, yeah, it does kinda suck because they changed it, in my opinion anyway. Part of that is that they ruined the setup for their own sequels, which doesn't seem like the smartest move.
** It never says what skin color Grover has in the book. He could be green, although I would think they would have mentioned that. Yet despite people's first impressions his character, being the comic relief, turned out to be the most faithful to the story. What the fans of the book berate most are not the many... MANY changes but the complete change of tone and mode from book. Instead of being clever and funny it was your typical brainless action movie.
** And then there's [[Everybody Hates Hades|Hades]]...
* To be expected from ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', being based on a [[Avatar: The Last Airbender|series]] that's more popular than the ability to breathe. Ignoring the claims of racism, many of the other complaints are getting ridiculous. It seems like with every new picture that's released, there is a very vocal retribution for such minor things as the color of Zuko's clothing, Katara's pulled-back loopies, Aang's grey colored arrow, Sokka not showing any sense of humor, the severity of Zuko's scar, and the size of Iroh's belly.
** However fans quickly got over about these changes and moved on to small things like "pronouncing the main characters names wrong!"
** Yet even these "minor things" looked absolutely pristine in comparison with the stilted dialogue, [[Exposition Fairy]] narration, wooden acting and [[Special Effects Failure]].
* Lest we should forget the remake of ''[[The Karate Kid]]'', in which the setting has been changed to China and the young man learns kung fu. Perhaps they should have renamed the movie The Kung Fu Kid?
** In defense of the franchise, it was only supposed to be in America that the film would be called The Karate Kid in order to spark interest from new and old fans. Jackie Chan and supposedly the whole film crew and cast referred to it as The Kung Fu Kid while filming. Despite this, the moniker The Karate Kid was still used when the movie was released in Asia and the rest of the world.
* The latest ''[[Robin Hood (2010 film)|Robin Hood]]'' movie has taken a lot of heat for being a history-oriented original origin story instead of a retelling of the Robin Hood story "[[Ink Stain Adaptation|everybody knows]]". The story everyone knows includes the usual setup of Prince John acting as regent in [[Richard the Lion Heart|King Richard]]'s absence, Robin being a outlawed knight, and Robin [[Storming the Castle]] to save Maid Marian. In the latest film, these plot elements are either absent ( {{spoiler|Richard dies at the start, and John is king for the rest of the film}}) or given a new twist ( {{spoiler|Robin, a commoner, poses as Marian's deceased husband, a knight}}), and the main plot is about setting up the legend to happen in the context of a (fictional) French invasion. The movie ends with {{spoiler|Robin finally being outlawed by John.}}
** As stated, many people were dissatisfied, to say the least, with the film for not following "the story everybody knows". But "the story everybody knows" (most probably through the combination of [[The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)|Errol Flynn]], [[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves|Kevin Costner]] and [[Robin Hood (Disney film)|Disney]]) is itself an [[Adaptation Distillation]] of centuries of folklore, literature and previous adaptations. Most of the details in the version everyone knows were only established through the years - including all of the above familiar elements, and Robin ''robbing the rich and giving to the poor'' itself (which is in the film, but not as much as people expected)! So the film is unfairly bashed for changing and adding to the story, when that's how the legend developed in the first place.
** A fairer point would be that in spite of trying to forgo light-heartedness of the Flynn and Disney versions in favor of being more historically accurate, a rather generous amount of liberties were used. Particularly with England and France's current relationship.
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* 3D technologies had a resurgence when stereoscopic 3D was used on blockbuster movies including ''[[Coraline (animation)|Coraline]]'', ''[[Avatar]]'', and ''[[How to Train Your Dragon (animation)|How to Train Your Dragon]]''. However, there's a resistance forming amongst directors and users, especially among the visually impaired, mainly because 3D requires both of a person's eyes to be good, and not everyone has that luxury; not to mention the requirement of 3D glasses. Indeed this is the reason why movie theaters have still offer 2D showings and many argue that 3D cannot become the standard until this is solved.
* One of the most common criticisms of the Americanization of the French Film ''Le diner de cons'', ''[[Dinner for Schmucks]]''.
** It's not so unreasonable when you think about it. The humor and pacing are completely different, as are the characters - the adaptation could almost be deemed [[In Name Only]]. Most importantly, in the French original, {{spoiler|Brochand was a bastard, the dinner was not shown and the "cons" were utterly normal people with regular hobbies}}. The American version however makes the "schmucks" total freaks, invites you to point and laugh at them for half of the movie and then {{spoiler|ends with the usual "different strokes for different folks". Oh and the Brochand counterpart was really only pushed to be mean and he's the hero. [[Broken Aesop]], much?}}
* When the trailer for ''[[The A-Team (film)|The a Team]]'' hit the Internet, tons of [[YouTube]] commenters started whining and freaking out about how they were going to do ''[[The A-Team]]'' without [[Mr. T]], how it was raping their childhoods, etc. Then the film turned out to be one giant homage/updated origin story, and the cast was pretty well-received by fans.
* When James Cameron released the remastered version of ''[[The Terminator]]'' the changes made were incredibly minute, limited primarily to the opening credits, the lightning effects and the sounds of gunfire. But for a number of fans these changes weren't minute enough and apparently detracted from the overall quality of the movie.
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* ''[[E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial|ET the Extraterrestrial]]''. For the film's 20th anniversary in 2002, it saw guns replaced with walkie-talkies and changing "terrorist" to "hippie." Mercilessly lampooned in the ''[[South Park]]'' parody episode "Free Hat." Incidentally, while said episode portrays Steven Spielberg as the diabolical mastermind behind editing ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', with [[George Lucas]] only reluctantly following, in [[Real Life]] Spielberg himself later stated that editing the movie was a mistake.
* If you want to see a fanbase metaphorically explode, just bring up any part of the live-action Transformers films that's different from the G1 show on a forum that's full of G1 fans. For starters, many fans were upset that Optimus Prime's truck mode was not a flatnose, he had flames painted on his cab because [[Author Appeal|the director thought they looked cool]], and his magically appearing/disappearing trailer from G1 was nowhere to be seen.
** Believe it or not, there were even fans who complained about Megatron's alt-mode being one that was actually usable without having to depend on one of his subordinates to pull the trigger.
*** ''[[Transformers: Dark of the Moon]]'' subverts this trope somewhat. The movie had all sorts of homages to the original G1 cartoon and its various episodes. When it came out, more of the criticism concerned the actual quality of the movie rather than it being unfaithful to G1 and the Transformers brand in general.
* An article in the Hollywood Reporter interviewed several people involved with [[The Muppets]] (who were not named, of course, except for veteran Muppeteer [[Frank Oz]]) who expressed their opinion that [[The Muppets (film)|The Muppets]] is not true to the characters, makes them act out of character to set up jokes, and that it seems less like a Muppet movie and more like "a Jason Segel movie that happens to have the Muppets in it." A few fans and critics still feel this way, but the vast majority [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_muppets/ do not].
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* A disturbing inversion came with the release of the now-blockbuster book adaptation, [[The Hunger Games]]. In it, Katniss Everdeen meets a tribute from District 11 named Rue, who later {{spoiler|saves Katniss' life after a [[Mushroom Samba]], and then has a heartbreaking death.}} Some decidedly racist fans were outraged that this beloved character was played by 13-year-old Amandla Stenberg, an African-American actress. The problem is that Rue and her male counterpart, Thresh, WERE ALWAYS DESCRIBED AS SUCH. Their introduction specifically mentions them having dark brown skin. Thankfully, it seems Amandla hasn't taken this nonsense to heart. You can view an article on these idiotic complaints [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/26/hunger-games-racist-tweets-rue_n_1380377.html here.]
* A number of fans (including author [[George R. R. Martin]]) have complained about founding members Ant-Man and the Wasp being left out of the ''[[The Avengers (film)|Avengers]]'' live-action movie in favor of Hawkeye and Black Widow, who are portrayed as founders in the film despite not joining the team until well after it was already established in the original comic books. Other complaints range from Hawkeye not wearing purple to Captain America not having wings on his helmet.
** And of course Captain America does have wings on his helmet; the only thing is these wings are painted on, not jutting out.
* ''[[Man of Steel]]'' already seems to be getting this. In addition to the usual complaints over the movie using a modified costume for Superman, the casting of African American actor [[Laurence Fishburne]] [[Race Lift|as Lois Lane's traditionally Caucasian boss]], Perry White, has also ruffled some feathers among some less than progressive fans.
* The ''[[James Bond (film)|James Bond]]'' series is subjected to this whenever anyone brings up over who is the better actor to play as James Bond. The biggest uproar came when Daniel Craig replaced Pierce Brosnan to be the actor playing as Bond due to the fact that Daniel looked very different compared to Pierce, along with his mannerisms. The Pierce VS Daniel flame wars even boiled over to the ''Goldeneye'' video game remake when Daniel Craig's voice and likeness were used instead of Pierce Brosnan.
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