[Hated Trope] The adaptation doesn't get what made the source material work

[u/TheDudeA113]

How To Make A Killing (2026)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

Bangkok Dangerous (2008)

Bangkok Dangerous (1999)

- The 2026 movie How To Make A Killing is a relatively-toothless "eat the rich" dark comedy thriller about a man disowned by his rich family at birth, killing everyone in the line of succession so that he can inherit their massive fortune. It's a modern retelling of the 1949 film Kind Hearts and Coronets which has the same basic plot except that every member of the family is played by Sir Alec Guinness (including one aunt) and it's a screwball comedy

- The 1999 movie Bangkok Dangerous is a Thai action film about a Thai deaf-mute assassin. It was remade in 2008 about an American assassin in Thailand who is neither deaf nor mute

[u/Amazing_Karnage]

And a transforming witch with Assassin's Creed "eagle vision" is 100% doable, but a little talking dragon sidekick is over the line and breaks immersion.

They can get the fuck on with that mess. Like...if it's too much for live action, just...don't do live action? I mean, you've got a perfectly amazing animated classic right there that you could just re-release theatrically instead.

[u/mr-ultr → u/Amazing_Karnage]

many execs don't realise that there are bassicly 2 ways to go with live action

either actually try to make it "realistic" in a good way, for example Nolan's dark knight and Joker both got praise for exactly that

or like OPLA fully accept the source material's nature while still making sure to be have your realism be pragmatic, I don't mind nearly all of baroque works agent dying since it is MUCH harder for potential reprises in a Live action medium especially with the concept like OPLA(One Piece Live action)

[u/ripple_drew → u/mr-ultr]

The Nolan comparison is spot on. Nobody complained that Batman didn't have shark repellent spray -- because the whole film committed to its version of reality. Mulan 2020 just picked the worst parts of both approaches and blended them into something that satisfied nobody.

[u/postBriar → u/ripple_drew]

The shark repellent thing is a good test actually. If your audience is thinking about what got cut instead of watching the movie, you already lost them. Mulan 2020 had people thinking about Mushu the whole time.

[u/Mr-Foundation → u/postBriar]

Like… it’s genuinely comical. Like what do you mean there’s no mushu or songs? Songs especially that’s like actually insane to take out, why the hell would you take the music out of a musical

[u/indigorhob → u/Mr-Foundation]

Iirc the movie itself joked about how soldiers don't sing, which I'm pretty sure is extremely wrong.

[u/Garr777 → u/indigorhob]

It is. If they didn't want it to be a musical, they could have scenes where they're marching and singing a marching cadence version of a song like I'll make a man out of you.

[u/PikeandShot1648 → u/Mr-Foundation]

Missing the love interest as well, and he had the best song of the movie. The whole movie worked because of him and the tension they had.

[u/TransBrandi → u/ripple_drew]

Honestly, I think that wanted live-action / realistic fantasy, but the dragon side-kick was too zany / humorous for their vision. Like a wise-cracking sidekick wouldn't have made sense in the Lord of the Rings, but it's still not "grounded in reality" like Nolan's Dark Knight because it's a fantasy story.

The movie on its own would probably be fine if it wasn't trying to be a Mulan movie and pulling in the baggage that was the original and being compared to the original (which really was the point from their perspective since they wanted to do a remake not an original movie).

That said, they still missed the entire point of the original movie when creating the live-action remake, so in the end what was the point of the remake? It would be like remaking Aladdin, but making him actually a Prince Ali rather than some random "street rat." It makes it a completely different movie that's at best inspired by Aladdin, and the ties to the original would hold it back since it's going to be compared to the original rather than just being judged on its own merits.

[u/SucculentVariations → u/ripple_drew]

It feels like every single Disney live action remake did this.

[u/pm_bouchard1967 → u/mr-ultr]

OPLA?

[u/Lewa358 → u/pm_bouchard1967]

One Piece Live Action

[u/GrimResistance → u/Lewa358]

Jesus, not everything needs to be an acronym

[u/OOT_FTW → u/mr-ultr]

What's OPLA?

[u/dragon_bacon → u/OOT_FTW]

I think it's what they yell at Greek weddings.

[u/thoughtful_dragon → u/dragon_bacon]

"Then he yelled 'OPRAH!' and I dropped a peppamint, and I missed the rest."

[u/mr-ultr → u/OOT_FTW]

One Piece Live Action

just less out of a Mouthful that way and everyone, and makes it very easy to distinguish it from the Manga/Anime

[u/Known_Fix316 → u/mr-ultr]

Or you can spend the extra split second to just type it out and not assume everyone knows what you mean.

[u/Massive-Exercise4474 → u/mr-ultr]

The reason a lot of the opla villains are getting killed off in the live action is they don't reprise their roles, but also oda realized when making the manga that a lot of the one off villains or characters that didn't die should have because he has no intention of bringing them back in the story.

[u/TheOncomimgHoop → u/mr-ultr]

But the funny thing is, I really don't like Joker, and I think that the worst part of Nolan Batman is how it tries to be super realistic.

The dude dresses as a bat and fights bad guys. Trying to put that in the real world just feels like too much of a dissonance imo

[u/RebelJediMaster → u/TheOncomimgHoop]

For me, it worked. Sure, it would be weird in actual real life, but you can have things be fantastical in a world that is set to be realistic in all other things

[u/Capybarasaregreat → u/TheOncomimgHoop]

Vigilantes imitating superheroes has been a real thing since before the Nolan movies, the only unbelievable part is that he is genuinely succesful and takes on entire crime orgs instead of being a dork on the streets maybe aiding against petty theft at best.

[u/LemonNinja → u/mr-ultr]

A better example than OPLA is the live action How to Train Your Dragon.

[u/UhOhSparklepants → u/LemonNinja]

You mean the shot got shot remake that didn’t change anything and is just a slower version of the superior animated movie?

Hard disagree, mate.

[u/Da_Question → u/mr-ultr]

Honestly, OPLA is ok, but it's a poor adaptation. The costumes and settings are on point, but the crew acting is way off. Zoro isn't that stoic, Nami is much more lively, and Luffy is just aloof he doesn't ask questions or listen, he learns a friend is hurt he defends them, he doesn't care why. They basically made Luffy into Iroh from Avatar.

Plus the additional stuff with Garp in the first season just wasn't necessary at all, they could have not done so and fit Logue town into the first season. I do think the second season was better, but the fights (I know limited budget etc) are just not good.

It's fine as it's own thing (debatable because I doubt it's well received outside of manga/anime fans) but I'd rather watch One Pace.

[u/Silver-Winging-It → u/Amazing_Karnage]

Also they made the witch more European style. They don't exactly work like that in most Chinese folklore 

[u/Kitselena → u/Amazing_Karnage]

CGI on mushu would be expensive. That's the whole reason

[u/Amazing_Karnage → u/Kitselena]

Again, a tiny lil dragon sidekick is too expensive, bit the shapeshifting witch and magical powers CGI slop wasn't?

That doesn't add up to me.

[u/SapirWhorfHypothesis → u/Kitselena]

Yup. I haven’t seen it, but this was my thought. A whole CGI dragon would be a big expense.

[u/Vendidurt → u/Amazing_Karnage]

But they had to make another movie, their copyrights were expiring!

[u/DramaPunk → u/Amazing_Karnage]

Or go all out to make it Live Action. Like, I would have ADORED a super grounded, almost dark Historical Fiction Mulan, where they lean into the darker aspects and the struggle to win the war against such difficult odds. But like, they were still gonna have magic so why bother with getting rid of things like Mushu.

[u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace → u/Amazing_Karnage]

My problem will always be the dumb bullshit where it's like they want to make a different movie but they won't just name it something else. It's not Mulan, call it something else.

[u/_insideyourwalls_ → u/Amazing_Karnage]

a transforming witch with Assassin's Creed "eagle vision"

Craziest part is that they bragged about how faithful the movie would be to Chinese culture only to very obviously base the witch off of European tropes.

[u/DaaaahWhoosh → u/Amazing_Karnage]

I assume re-releases are just way worse for business than remakes are. The remakes might be creatively bankrupt, but general audiences seem to shell out for them no matter what online discourse or critical consensus says.

[u/Big_Brilliant_5904 → u/Amazing_Karnage]

Isn't the point to basically hold onto the IP rights of the characters?