Book adaptation commentary

Rating: 1/10 (4 March 2002)

This is not a commentary on the quality of the movie as a movie. I've had my say as well as anyone else on that score. Instead, I'd like to touch on the quality of the adaptation from book to film. I've seen many, MANY comments from people who thought it was so true to Tolkien's novels. Too those, I would make this challenge: Buy a cheap or used copy and read the book again and highlight everything that was changed (although you may find it easier to mark the things that are the same).
If a line of dialogue was different, mark it. If there was a significant passing of time and the film doesn't represent it legitimately, mark it. If characters were changed (i.e. expanded, contracted, created roles), mark it. If something was told as a flashback, but was rearranged in the telling of the story, mark it. If something was described in detail and it didn't appear that way in the movie, mark it. If a character was said to have an emotion other than was clearly expressed on the screen, mark it. If a character turns into a bright blue cartoon character when there's no such supernatural transformation described, mark it. If things were mentioned subtly in the book that were just laid out in the movie, mark it.
Make sure and pick a highlighter color that you can live with in case you want to re-read this copy as you'll be seeing it a lot.
I understand that film is a different medium with a different vocabulary, but there were many changes made that were not required for the transition. In addition I'd like to take this chance to point out that it is indeed a different medium and we should be demanding screenplays original to the screen and not watered down versions of Book, Comics, TV Shows, Cartoons, Video Games, etc.