[Weekly Update] Adaptations that don't follow the source materials (Patreon)

Just finished the Xenoblade 3 DLC. I thought I'd be the target audience for the story, since I followed the series since the days of Operation Rainfall.

But nope, it expects me to follow it from the days of Xenogears. Talk about a commitment.

For the rest of you who don't care about this games series, this probably reads like gibberish. Anyway, off to the update:

CHANNEL UPDATE

I'll be off to a trip in less than 2 weeks. Update will continue, but the timing will be affected due to time zone and traveling schedules. I'll still be uploading videos, though.

For our next video, we'll be talking about the sacrilege adaptation of Journey to the West, produced by NBC and SciFi Channel. It's called The Monkey King, also called The Lost Empire. It is a fever dream of an adaptation that everyone who loves Journey to the West should watch. The video is currently being edited.

The video after that will be a highlight of 5 fight scenes from Chinese movies. It'll be just me sharing my personal opinions, as well as bringing in loads of honourable mentions. It'll be nice to unwind from our usual analysis and just let loose.

And for this month's bonus video, we won't be talking about a specific movie. Instead, I want to share my thought on the general state of mega blockbusters. That is, films outside of MCU, like Dune, Avatar 2, Top Gun, etc, and how no one seems to be talking about the stories in these movies.

Of course, that is subject to change. But that's the general outline.

MEDIA TALK

Having to find Journey to the West footage for our next video, I've come to realized just how rare it is to find an adaptation that actually follows the book. Every adaptation, produced in and outside of China, is either a reinterpretation, a comedic parody, or a sequel. It actually gets kinda frustrating.

And since we also recently talked about Porco Rosso and Starship Troopers, two movies that didn't follow the source material, let's talk about some more movies in this category. Here are the ones that I know of:

Let's start with a bad one: The Beastmaster. The movie has a decent loved and has a cult following, but the book is so much more interesting and has so much more potential. For one thing, it was a sci-fi book, and has a Navajo protagonist. Knowing that, now the movie just seems so bland... if you overlook the fact that it is a Conan knock-off for kids but with nudity.

But then there is the opposite: The Boys. It's pretty famous within comic circle that The Boys is a terrible edge lord comic, just violent and shocking for the sake of it, with no real message nor any attempt at introspection. The fact that, in the comic, the butcher has superpower and uses it, kinda makes him just one more ass hat in a world of fedoras. It has no potential what so ever, but then the TV somehow managed to make it work. Mad respect.

Here is another one that I think is an improvement: Blade Runner. Philip K. Dick is the idea guy, but his writing is... hit or miss, let's put it that way. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep came out in 1968, back when the line between machine and AI is still blurry. Reflecting the perception of its time, the Androids in the book are without emotion, soulless machines. By 1982, the concept of AI has already been popularized, and debate on wether or not they should be considered living was all the rage. It was quite a twist for the film to depict the replicants as machines with hearts.

Here is a controversial one: Jurassic Park. In the book, Hammond is actually a much more ruthless villain. He's the Dr. Frankenstein of the story, and just as Frankenstein, he too was killed by his own creations. Some see Hammond's character as a strong criticism on capitalism, which definitely a valid point. As a result, the much friendlier version of Hammond strikes book readers as Hollywood's attempt at whitewashing the problem away.

So that is four movies that are different from the source! There are other examples, such as The Mask and TMNT both being tame adaptations of very violent books. But those changes were made more so out of necessity. Of course, there is also The Shining. But you already know that one.

Oh and there's the Super Mario Bros live action movie.

So that is the update for this week. What are some other adaptations that aren't adaptations at all? Let me know. And I'll see you soon with a new video!