Worst Movie Adaptations of Books
21 items ranked
The top 20 worst movies based on (good) books.
Click on up and down arrows to affect item's ranking
1.
The Lightning Thief
This YA novel by Rick Riordan tells the thrilling tale of young Percy Jackson who finds out that is a demigod, descended from the Greek God Poseidon. This book is filled with exciting action sequences, funny jokes, and clever little details about Greek mythology. However, everything that makes this book magical was completely lost in the film. How you can take something that is inherently interesting and make it so blah is beyond me.
32 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal - 1 comment
Comments:
They left out important characters for the sequel!
Added 12 years ago by guest, 0 points
2.
Harry Potter
15 points - added 13 years ago by guest -
3.
Bonfire of the Vanities
This social satire by Tom Wolfe is a scathing account of 80s excess is a brilliant novel, however somehow it got lost in the translation to film. But maybe this 700 page book is unfilmable, what with so much of the novel being analysis of New York City class politics are Wolfe's spot-on descriptions of stockbrokers, social activists, tabloid reporters, and civil servants.
13 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
4.
Bicentennial Man
10 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
5.
American Psycho
There's probably a lot of people that will disagree with me on this one, but I really hated this film. And I had such high hopes for it. Christian Bale was an excellent choice to play Patrick Bateman, but his performances during the murder scenes was so over-the-top it seemed almost like a caricature. One of the greatest things about the book was the social critique of the world of the wealth in 80s New York City, who's lives center around restaurant reservations, business cards, and doing cocaine. However, that edgy look at this portion of society is as good as lost in the film.
10 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
6.
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
The problem with adapting books into movies is that so often there is so much material in a book that it's impossible to tell the whole story in 90 minutes. The opposite is true of picture books. While picture books tell great stories, they are extremely short. The only way to make it into a movie is to add more characters, plot lines, sub plots, details, etc. And as we see in this film, it usually isn't good.
While Jim Carey did a decent enough job as the Grinch, although many of his jokes felt forced, the movie on the whole was a garish over-done nightmare, with all the subtle nuances of the book completely lost.
10 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
7.
The Da Vinci Code
9 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
8.
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
9 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
9.
The Human Stain
9 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
10.
Bram Stoker's Dracula
While Gary Oldman gave a fine performance, I cannot forgive Keanu Reeves for his (bad) English accent
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
11.
Love in the Time of Cholera
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
12.
Bee Season
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
13.
All The King's Men (2006)
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
14.
The Scarlet Letter (1995)
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
15.
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
16.
Slapstick (Of Another Kind)
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
17.
Spiderwick Chronicles
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
18.
Great Expectations (1998)
8 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
19.
Stardust
7 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal -
20.
Starship Troopers
6 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal - 1 comment
Comments:
This wasn't just a bad film adaptation of a beloved novel. It actively tried to (and did) spit on the central themes and ideals of Heinlein's work. Poorly acted and poorly thought out, it perverts, ignores and leaves out central plots, characters and scenes (such as the bastardization of Zim's knife training sequence). It was an irredeemable farce, undermining and mocking Heinlein's philosophy, in favor of tired, trite and cliche anti-militarism and anti-materialism. If I wanted to watch Robocop, I'd watch Robocop. Verhoeven and Neumeier did it better the first time, without shoehorning its themes into a film 'based' on a work of science fiction greater than any they could ever aspire to make.
Added 13 years ago by guest, 0 points
21.
Twilight
While the films are beginning to grow on me, especially Eclipse which is almost a good movie, Twilight is an absolute mess. Sure, the books aren't brilliant or anything, but they are interesting and entertaining. But somehow all the details that made the book a great read, are cut out of the movie. Add to that the fact that the acting abilities of Kristen Stewart (why was she stuttering the whole time?) and Robert Pattinson are limited at best, it makes the film an odd sort of torture to watch.
3 points - added 13 years ago by missdeweydecimal - 1 comment
Comments:
a good movie adaptation should have good writing and acting. these movies do not have either
Added 12 years ago by ianpope, 0 points
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