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?
I hear this complaint about Lex a lot, and how she’s annoying, badly written and frankly unbelievable. Once upon a time I might have agreed. However, since becoming a parent, and thus being exposed to many more real-life children (not just my own), I can confidently say that Lex’s annoying little sister behavior is not that unrealistic. It just really isn’t. Many young kids are just like that.
Agreed.
And for that reason, I wasn’t too upset that they swapped the ages and aged her up. It’s difficult to write for a small child in a way that’s coherent to the plot and doesn’t just turn them into wallpaper (emotional or otherwise).
Dakota Fanning’s character in War of the Worlds gets similar flack for being very much like Lex.
I much prefer child characters that act like realistic kids, than child characters who act like tiny 35 year olds.
Agreed. Lex wasn’t a great character for a book, but it was a realistic depiction of some young children. I think everyone has met an extremely annoying 7-12 year old kid.
Michael Crichton always wrote like a dad with experience lol. Hyper obsessed with certain topic kids, annoying whiney brats, babies who just wouldn’t eat their f******g oatmeal, toddlers who got diaper rash because someone didn’t wipe them well enough and they had crusty poop in their genitals. Absolute undying unconditional love for your kids. He was so real for that lmao