They changed it from the book ...

They changed it from the book ...

Jumper, Harry, and Neil ... and now ... Wanted

While watching the DVD of Jumper, writer Stephen Gould commented that he was cool with the changes made to his material ... having been a fan of his for some time I was glad to hear that since I enjoyed the movie even though I had read the book several years ago ...

Neil Gaiman went out of his way to tell his fans that the changes in Stardust from print to screen were his changes. He felt that he had to make changes to translate the material to the screen.

Stanley Kubrick liked to work with short stories instead of novels because you could add to a story but had to delete from a novel.

The complaints I heard about the first two movies in the Harry Potter series is that they stuck too close to the book ... you clearly cannot win sometimes ...

Comic book movies from long running series like Batman or the X-Men pick and choose which era they work from on various characters. Sometimes it works and often it doesn't.

So, this summer when I went to watch Wanted I knew that they had made a couple of important changes. Trying very hard to keep an open mind and noting that the ticket was free I went in still expecting to be entertained at most and disappointed in the end. I found myself not hating the movie. The changes worked out for the most part. It would have taken an extra hour of movie to create the big super-villian world the comic used, the assassin storyline worked as enough of a back story for me. Was it great? No. Was I personally insulted like my friend Big Blue over a few of the changes in Lord of the Rings? No.

Sometimes the changes work. Other times they fail. Sometimes it takes a fifth and sixth Batman movie to get things right.

But, the changes are almost always coming. I find it comical how so many people act shocked when they occur.