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"The Best Picture Show" - final image of 86 Oscar Best Picture winners, made by Final Image Blog

This was in the Digg email today so I'm sure some of you have seen it but it is really cool, if only to see how many of the movies you can identify from their last moments on screen.

Topics for the month of April - Ask Me Anything!

Comment to this post with questions/topics for one of the following dates and I'll answer them starting on April 1st.

April 1st- What is something that has recently made you happy? rogueslayer452

April 2nd- What is your vision for our future? Do you want us to progress in space travel and perhaps one day live on another planet if it's possible? hellonelo

April 3rd- what are some of your favorite CDs and why? thekaiserchief

April 4th- What was your favourite toy as a child? pleasant_valley

April 5th- Rec 5 books. Recent or not. faeriesfolly

April 6th- Would you consider yourself a patient person? How are you in social confrontations (debates/arguments/people yelling at you/etc.)? Are you better with online conversations/debates than in real life? rogueslayer452

April 7th- Do you have a favorite memory from a particular period of your life? thekaiserchief

April 8th- What are some of your all time favorite biography books? hellonelo

April 9th-Favorite Muppet.faeriesfolly

April 10th- Do you believe in life or the existence of other beings like us on other planets/galaxies? Do you think we'll ever know, or will the human race die out before we get a chance? rogueslayer452

April 11th- Do you have any comic series you would highly recommend to someone? hellonelo

April 12th- If you could become a super hero, what ability would you have and why? hellonelo

April 13th- Do you think your zodiac sign accurately reflects you and your personality? Why or why not? thekaiserchief

April 14th- Do you have a favourite fictional character from literature? What about this particular character makes them stand out to you? coco_waters

April 15th-

April 16th- Favorite Video Game (series/non-series/multi-player/single player if that's easier.) faeriesfolly

April 17th- Where did you last go on holiday? coco_waters

April 18th- If you could travel anywhere in time where would it be and what would you like to bring back? pleasant_valley

April 19th- Favourite season/time of year? coco_waters

April 20th- What is your favorite song at the moment? rogueslayer452

April 21st-

April 22nd-

April 23rd - Favorite Board Game(s). faeriesfolly

April 24th-

April 25th- Who is your current celebrity crush? rogueslayer452

April 26th-

April 27th- Which fictional creature would you most like to have as a pet? pleasant_valley

April 28th- Which book(s) have you re-read the most? (or if you don’t like to re-read books, do you have a particular reason not to?) coco_waters

April 29th- What fictional universe would you love to live in and which universe would you not want to live in? thekaiserchief

April 30th-

Ender's Game and the problem with adapting classic genre lit to screen

Last week, we rented the big screen adaptation of Orson Scott Card's science fiction classic, Ender's Game. I think it is safe to say that this movie was doomed from the start, and part of that had nothing to do with the script or the actors but the legacy of the story.

Published in 1985, I have a feeling that many young adults fans of the genre were happily reading anything science fiction that was published. And many of those young adults became authors and screenwriters whose work was influenced, directly or indirectly, by the story of Andrew Ender Wiggin and his life in the military academy.

But now? In 2014, the dystopian novel with a teen protagonist is all the rage. Hunger Games, Divergent, Roar -- many of the top books for teens are about young adults fighting the wars of their parents. Of the blurred lines between right and wrong when it comes to war. And I'm sure we can sit and point at dozens of science fiction movies that have come out since that take the same premise, of raising the super soldier to protect us, of sacrificing childhood innocence to keep the world safe. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few...it's all been done to death.

And here comes Hollywood, so excited that it can capitalize on the popularity of such franchises as The Hunger Games by making a film of a book that many consider the start of it all. But because so much time has passed, the power of the story loses a lot of it's weight. As usual, the movie becomes obsessed with having the special effects work more than giving us characters we can get behind.

This is my theory as to why Science Fiction films are so looked down upon by the general populace. Fans of Science Fiction novels read the stories and love them for their social and political commentary. They try to spread the word and people scoff at "Sci-Fi" as pulp stories that should be recycled as soon as they are read. Then Hollywood says they will make a movie and (for some strange reason) the Science Fiction fans are excited because finally their love will be our love. But, no, Hollywood must butcher your story, chop it down to 2 hours, and just keep the bits that have explosions. And so the general populace walks out of the movie theater, unaware that there is more to the book, unaware that the movie they just viewed is based on a 30 year old novel that has inspired most of their other popcorn movies since then -- all they see is a 2 hour explosion fest with little character development and a plot they have already seen before.

This is true of adapting any classic to the big screen, but I think because Science Fiction and Fantasy are already picked on for being "nerdy" it makes it harder for general viewers to forgive bad film version. Everyone knows (or has been told by their teachers time and again) that Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare wrote classics, so if the movie stinks, its just the movie, not the book. I think the only high fantasy movie series that managed to survive was Lord of the Rings (but then Jackson turned around and gave us the epic mess that is the unnecessary Hobbit trilogy).

I could blog about this for hours, giving examples of other movies that have fallen short but let's turn it over to you -- What do you think? Should Hollywood bother adapting "classics" to the big screen? Are they doomed from the start?