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?
Station Eleven. The mini series has more nuanced characters and heart. However, book Kristen is better than show Kristen lol
Agree!! The book was just okay for me; the show is one of my favorites. I love love love Jeevan and Frank in the show.
Did that show end properly or was it cancelled?
It’s a mini-series so one season is all they needed
I read the book first and loved it. I found the series indulgent and the theatre crew too smug. It was also confusing, which is odd because I was never confused by the plot in the book.
Interesting! I really preferred the book for it’s character depth. And, while I liked the past episodes of the show, I found the changes made to the future were like a jarring theater kid fever dream, and I can barely forgive turinign Clark into a fascist
Agree with how they treated Clark.
Jeevan and Kristen’s connection definitely improved the TV show and would have made a great addition to the book but they took most of the characters on completely opposite character arcs. Clark, Miranda, the prophet. I think I preferred them in the book.
However, the one thing I cannot accept from the TV show is that Jeevan is just some random guy. He wasn’t a paramedic and he wasn’t a former paparazzi that released the cheating story about the actor. He needed to be one of those for his desire to jump up on stage to make sense.