r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Morr4Seiya • 8d ago

Hated Tropes An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

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Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

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802

u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle 8d ago

Not an adaptation, but rambo 1 was anti-war and then it became the WAR IS FUCKING AWESOME RAAAHHHHH series

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u/Demomanx 8d ago

How, that scene when Rambo breaks down crying talking about his friend in Vietnam was so good and probably my favorite Stallone scene.

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u/DWA824 8d ago

That's the first movie, their talking about the sequels

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u/CarlWheezersValhalla 8d ago

He means "how did they lose the plot so badly in the sequels when the first had such a great scene which conveyed the tone well"

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u/JollyRancherReminder 8d ago

Rambo II is still great. I heard III was terrible, so I never watched it.

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u/RodRed1985 8d ago

Rambo 3 was fine if you like 80s action films. It half attempts a message but really doesn't commit to one either. It's a solid C of a movie. It's not anything you'll write home about but not anything where you feel like you lost time off you're life you'll never get back either.

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u/NewAudience6075 8d ago

It half attempts a message

"The Mujahideen is AWESOME because they're fighting against the commie Russians! The USA should continueaccelerate the military aid program because the enemy of our enemy will be our friend forever! There's no way this can come back to bite us in the ass!"

—some dimwitted CIA dweeb, maybe George Bush Sr., I dunno

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u/alwaysintheway 8d ago

They are talking about both.

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u/Plus-Advantage380 7d ago

The book was about traumatization of soldiers in Vietnam, what we now call PTSD. Rambo was a Vietnam vet and the sheriff was a Korean war vet. Both of them die at the end of the book with Trautman using a shotgun to kill Rambo.

The original ending of First Blood (Rambo 1 if you must) had Trautman holding a .45 on Rambo and him forcing the Colonel to shoot him. It didn't test well with audiences, so they changed it. Also, in the movie, Rambo accidentally kills Gault by throwing a rock at a helicopter. In the book, he kills everybody.

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u/mcc9902 8d ago

I like all of the Rambo movies but I only consider the first one to be great. The rest are fun action flicks but they don't have any depth past that.

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u/CJLowder1997 7d ago

I dunno, I think the fourth one has some depth to it.

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u/MostlyAlways47 8d ago

That being said the third film aged hilariously.

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u/dnjprod 8d ago edited 8d ago

Right? For those who don't know, this is what the title card says at the end...

Edit: corrected screenshot

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u/Howdocomputer 8d ago

That is in fact not what the title card at the end says. This is the real title card. The Mujahideen one is an old edit.

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u/dnjprod 8d ago

Thank you for the correction. I'm gonna correct mine

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u/palk0n 8d ago

why would you? now i dont know what you were referring to!!

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u/dnjprod 8d ago

Now you do...

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u/LaLloronaVT 8d ago

I like to think only the first two exist or that even only the first movie exists, the third one has aged horribly and anything past that is that not all that great

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u/Plus-Advantage380 7d ago

As far as movies go, I have to respectfully disagree. The .50 cal scene at the end of John Rambo was a spectacular piece of brutality.

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u/Meowcate 7d ago

It is an adaptation. In the book, the colonel kills Rambo in the end, so no Rambo 2.

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u/poizn_ivy 7d ago

Actually, it IS an adaptation. The novel First Blood by David Morrell was published in 1972 and while the movie flanderizes some of the characters and muddies things a little bit, it’s still much closer to the tone and intended message of the book than its sequels were.

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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle 7d ago

Rambo 1 is an adaptation. The others aren’t .

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u/gregoriancuriosity 8d ago

I’ve only seen first blood. It is awesome.

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u/ToonMasterRace 8d ago

It changed with American culture. From the misery and demoralization of the 70s into the renewed optimism and patriotism of the 80s.

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u/lostlookingforamap 7d ago

It is based on a book by David Morrell

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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle 7d ago

Only the first one. The other movies, the ones I’m talking about, are not

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u/nowhere_sane 7d ago

My favorite Rambo movie will always be Hot Shots and Hot Shots Part Deux.

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u/MexusRex 7d ago

The original movie also missed the point of the novel (in the best possible way). Rambo in the novel was a mass murderer and indiscriminate killer.

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u/Nuclear_eggo_waffle 7d ago

It still was about PTSD and the horrors of war, though i'll admit they changed some key points

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u/somerandomuser748392 8d ago

Except it is an adaptation