Filmmaking is a mammoth task with many pitfalls, any one of which can lead it to failure. It’s difficult enough without the added perils of adapting a story told in another medium altogether. There is the prodigious task of transposing the charm and magic afforded by the written medium to the visual one, and that’s just the beginning of the journey.
A book-to-movie adaptation has to contend not just with the average viewer but also to dedicated fans of the source material, who are sure to nitpick on each and every detail shown in the movie. On top of that, it is often seen that book-to-movie adaptation can easily miss out on the fundamentals of good storytelling. While there are a few of them that have garnered iconic status among cinemagoers, there are many book-to-movie adaptations that have seen the ire of audiences and critics alike. Here are 15 of them.
15 Ender’s Game
The sci-fi novel Ender’s Game made an enduring mark with its devastating commentary on the cruelty of war. It told its story from the perspective of intellectually gifted children who are recruited by the military to train for interplanetary war by leading fleets of warships. The remorse and mental trauma experienced by the lead character, Ender, took central focus in the book.
The 2013 feature film adaptation of the book divested itself completely from this central theme. Fans found in its place a soulless film about a cold, Machiavellian child genius who excels in war tactics and engages in genocide without so much as a flinch. Despite boasting a star-studded cast, including the likes of Viola Davis and Harrison Ford, the movie seemed composed of only lukewarm performances, which didn’t help its weak plot.
14 Percy Jackson 1 & 2
The adaptation of the Percy Jackson book series by Rick Riordan was received by many as a possible successor to the famed Harry Potter film franchise. The books had a seasoned fan following and featured exciting parallels to Harry Potter that made them a ripe source for film series treatment. The studios even managed to snap up Chris Columbus, director of two Harry Potter movies, to helm the first Percy Jackson movie.
But despite enjoying moderate box office success, the movies were a major disappointment to fans. Major changes made to the plot removed many of the dynamics that made the books so excellent in the first place. Some of them were the aging up of the central characters, which had a significant impact on the character relationships, and revealing Luke as the villain early on in the first movie.
The adaptations went from bad to worse going into the second movie, and any sequel plans were promptly scrapped. However, Riordan might get the due diligence he deserves with an upcoming Disney+ series adaptation, which he is actively overseeing as producer.
13 The Hobbit Trilogy
Peter Jackson’s adaptation of the iconic fantasy book series, Lord of the Rings, was a monumental artistic achievement. His take on The Hobbit, however, seemed rather lax in comparison. The main issue arose from the fact that it was a single book that the studios were intent upon adapting as yet another trilogy. Numerous subplots were invented to fill in the runtime, and characters not present in the original book also found prominent screentime. The overbearing and tonally unbalanced manner with which The Hobbit trilogy placed references and callbacks to Lord of the Rings left fans feeling lukewarm about the entire experience.
12 Artemis Fowl
Fans of the Artemis Fowl books series had been eagerly awaiting a film adaptation for a long time. News about a film franchise based on the books were published as far back as 2001, but it languished in development hell for years before finally being released in 2020. The highly anticipated release ended up being one of those messy adaptations that piles together a bunch of different plot elements from the source for an end result that is scarcely discernible.
The movie turned the titular character from a criminal child mastermind to a character with barely any notable traits. Almost all of the in-universe logic and plot sequences that allowed the books to create a tangible progression were missing in the movie. In fact, the movie was even called one of the worst YA fantasy novels ever (via Forbes).
11 A Wrinkle in Time
The 2018 film adaptation of prestigious sci-fi novel A Wrinkle in Time suffered from similar issues as Artemis Fowl, leaving behind the overarching themes that gave life to the book in the first place. The movie summarily cut out the character nuances, with the Misses suffering most of all. While the book portrayed them as wise and often serious characters, the movie portrayed them in a one-dimensional way that robbed them of their charm.
Similar issues plague the many plot instances where the movie chose to deviate from the book, leaving it without a tangible sense of progression even until its penultimate climax. In its place, the movie overcompensated with glamorous CGI that felt dull and unimpactful despite its apparent splendor.
10 The Dark Tower
An extreme diversion from the source’s original vision seems to be a common thread among book-to-movie adaptations that gain infamy. The situation was the same in director Nikolaj Arcel’s adaptation of Stephen King’s famous novel series, The Dark Tower. The movie’s first mistake was in trying to compress eight books’ worth of dense plot into one single movie. Going one step further, the adaptation lost much of its edge by seeking to tell a violent tale through a PG-13 movie. Despite the presence of acting legends like Matthew McConaughey and Idris Elba in the leading roles, the adaptation didn’t appeal much to fans or lay audiences.
9 The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was released around the same time as other YA novel adaptations like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner. Unlike its peers, however, The Mortal Instruments quickly disappeared into oblivion given its less-than-stellar storytelling. The source material for the movie was a popular book series in the urban fantasy genre by Cassandra Clare, beloved by fans for its rich storytelling and enchanting lore.
There were ambitious plans for a full-fledged film franchise based on the books. A lackluster approach to adapting salient plot details from the book turned out to be the death of these plans, as the version of events presented in the movie was completely devoid of the book’s subtleties. After the movie failed to break even at the box office, all plans for a franchise were scrapped.
8 David Lynch’s Dune
The novel Dune by Frank Herbert holds a special place in sci-fi literature, remembered for its elaborate lore inspired by readings of countless texts on religion and philosophy. It was one of those works that were long considered unadaptable to the cinematic medium. However, people had high hopes for the 1984 Dune adaptation by filmmaker David Lynch.
At the face value, it seemed as if Lynch’s otherworldly imagination was the perfect tool to translate this book, rapt with psychedelic imagery, into the screen. But the book turned out to be way too complicated for a single movie, and audiences didn’t exactly warm up to Lynch’s surreal take on the material.
7 The Girl on the Train
Released in 2016, The Girl on the Train was seemingly an attempt to re-engineer the runaway success that was Gone Girl. Based on the eponymous novel by Paula Hawkins, the movie cast Emily Blunt as a divorced, jobless alcoholic who spends her days stalking her ex-husband, until she gets entangled with a murder during one of her blackouts.
The book is full of shocking twists and riveting turns that made it a successful debut novel for Hawkins. The movie somehow managed to leave out the rich character development and left in its place a series of predictable and needlessly convoluted plot points. The movie failed to impress critics, and was quickly forgotten by audiences too.
6 Divergent Series: Allegiant
The Divergent film series was one among the many major film projects that came to life during the post-Hunger Games boom of YA novel adaptations. The franchise would include one movie for each book in the trilogy by Veronica Roth, except for the third book, which would be released as two movies.
Response to the first two movies weren’t too bad. The third movie, Allegiant, departed greatly from its source material and was widely lambasted by fans for it. The movie also saw a hurried release, which didn’t help matters much. Terrible CGI work was apparent throughout its runtime, and Allegiant performed so poorly that the final movie was completely scrapped.
5 Eragon
During the 2000s, book-to-movie adaptations were all about the fantasy genre owing to the success of the Harry Potter franchise. Eragon, released in 2006, was an adaptation of an eponymous book by Christopher Paolini, the first book in a series named The Inheritance Cycle. The popularity of this fantasy book series, filled with dragons and tyrannical rulers, was such that the movie nabbed two Saturn Awards nominations despite fans’ resentment towards it.
The wooden acting notwithstanding, fans took issue with changes to the plot and characters which led to the end result becoming quite underwhelming. Fans have new cause to rejoice, however, as Disney+ is currently working on an Eragon series with Paolini as a producer.
4 The Scarlet Letter
Classic novel The Scarlet Letter is a poignant tale about a woman who gives birth out of wedlock, and the life of guilt and public humiliation she is exposed to afterwards. The powerful commentary it offers on adultery and women’s oppression has made it an important text in the history of American literature. Despite the fact that the book and its themes are so well-known in the world, the 1995 adaptation of the movie basically took a reverse approach to the story. The movie took major liberties with the revered material, turning it into a shallow erotic thriller that was universally criticized.
3 The Golden Compass
The fantasy novel trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman is considered highly by readers for its layered storytelling. Although the books were marketed as YA fiction, they better resembled works of high fantasy with its elaborate world-building, tied intricately with religious allegory. While fans loved the trilogy for exactly this reason, the anti-religious themes in the books had already garnered some criticism from religious groups long before a film adaptation was on the cards.
The Golden Compasswas released in 2007 as an adaptation of the first book in the trilogy. It boasted a star cast of top actors like Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. However, it failed to turn the movie into a profitable affair. Although the movie found some box office success, viewers were treated to a confusing garble of CGI. The final judgment was that the movie’s plot suffered by hiding the anti-religious elements of Pullman’s books, which were intimately tied to the key plot points.
2 Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
It has been some time since films by Tim Burton made a significant impact on the pop culture zeitgeist, the kind that was seen by movies like Big Fish and Corpse Bride. His adaptation of the children’s fantasy novel Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children received an even worse treatment, and it remains all but forgotten.
True to his style, the movie was a visual feast but quickly alienated dedicated fans of the book upon release. There were many unnecessary plot changes, including some that really piqued fans like the swapping of magical powers between characters. The movie simply didn’t have the impact of the books and quickly disappeared into obscurity after underperforming at the box office.
1 Paper Towns
Author John Green was the hottest commodity in town after the massive success of The Fault in our Stars. A second adaptation of a John Green novel was imminent, and it materialized in the form of a dispirited Paper Towns movie. Paper Towns was right down Green’s alley, a riveting coming-of-age movie that held readers to the page with its characters’ dark thoughts and the lively portrayal of their internal woes. In fact, suicide is a major theme of the book that is explored through most of the characters.
The movie decided to go another route entirely, turning it into a happy-go-lucky high school adventure. Plot changes from the source serially deemphasized the severity of many plot threads, leading to an overall lack of impact that was seen in the movie’s reception.
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