Originally Posted by
Skroe
I think Game of Thrones from Season 1 - Season 5 is generally better than the books. The books are better at worldbuilding-ish things, but the more focused narrative of the show along with condensed characters, streamlined motivations and reorganized events just made for better storytelling. The Dany in Meereen story is just better in the show.
The Dark Knight Rises, which is heavily inspired by both the Knightfall Saga and and No Mans Land (and condensed them together), was objectively better than both. No Mans Land in particular was largely a mess with an interesting idea at its core.
The DCAU as a whole, particularly Batman the Animated Series and Justice League / JLU, were consistently better (and adapted stories better) than their original comics inspiration. The Justice League in particular has never been done as well as it was in Justice League. And most of what we think of about with regards to Batman in his modern form is from BTAS (pulled from various sources)
But I think the daddy of them all is the Richard Donner Superman: The Movie from 1978. Superman was a mess before that movie. He had dozens of Superpowers. Crazy power levels. The daily planet was out of the picture for a while. He worked at a TV station. His history was nonsensical with the Legion of Superheroes and other worldly stuff. Superman the movie cut through it all and created, in effect, the modern Superman... the one with the most iconic power set, the most iconic setting, and the most iconic origin. It was free of everything writers tacked on. Really, the perfect update. I don't think there is an adaptation that is more influential to the source material than it. Batman the Animated Series is close, but i still thing Superman edges it out.