There are ample ways to consume media and while books have been the more traditional form of it, in recent times with the rise and popularity of movies and shows, they have become the more prominent way of understanding a story, and so on. However, the writing process of a movie is way different from a writing process of a book. And many times the makers of book adaptations fail to recognize why some books could never work well as movies. Here are the 10 worst book to movie adaptations of all time, that disappointed the readers, the movie-watchers, and sometimes the authors themselves.
10 Worst Book to Movie Adaptations of All Time
Twilight
One of the first young-adult vampire novel series, Twilight was published in 2005 and was written by Stephanie Meyer. The books were adapted into movies and the first movie was released in the year 2008 starring Robert Pattinson, Kristen Steward, and Taylor Lautner in the lead. This movie was very popularly hated, not just by fans but by the cast themselves. There was an entire phase on the internet where hating the Twilight Saga was a trend. The movie was full of cliche and predictable. However, it acted as a great career starter for many of the actors in the film.
Percy Jackson
While the first book begins with Percy only being 12 years old, the movies aged him, and all the characters up to their late teens. This resulted in the dynamics of the situation changing completely, and hence, not making sense. The author of the book, Rick Riordan, has spoken out multiple times about how the movies were not done well. There were only two movies made from the book series due to the negative reviews by fans as well as the financial strain from not receiving a good response from the box office.
The Giver
The Giver, written by Lois Lowry, is a dystopia book for middle school students that was adapted into a film. Even with top-notch actors such as Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridgers, the movie failed to capture the essence of the books and was nowhere close to it. The main character, Jonas, similar to Percy Jackson, was also aged up, which changed the dynamics between him and his friend, Fiona. A minor character in the book is also given more screen time in the movie as the makers of the show saw Taylor Swift fit for the role. However, the role was very confusing to the people who have read the book.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
The Mortal Instruments is a six-part young-adult fantasy series written by Cassandra Clare, with City of Bones being the first book in this series. This movie was made around the time when The Hunger Games and The Twilight films were gaining popularity. The movie was done in such a predictable way, that many critics complained about the movie being a Twilight rip-off. It performed ill at the box office and has terrible reviews by critics as well as the book readers. However, the books were adapted again on screen, this time in a series named Shadowhunters. The series received better reviews than the movie.
Paper Towns
Paper Towns is a John Green coming-of-age novel published in 2008, which was then adapted into a movie in the year 2015. The movie featured actor and model Cara Delevinge and actor and musician Nat Wolff in the lead roles. The movie has been called overwritten, boring, and un-happening, among other examples by many reviewers. The main characters in the film were exaggerated to an extent where it was impossible to like them.
Allegiant from the Divergent Series
The Divergent Series by Veronica Roth is practically The Hunger Games’s younger sister that is yet to grow up. In spite of having a similar storyline and main lead as The Hunger Games, this series still gained immense popularity amongst readers. The movies, however, failed to please them. While The Hunger Games went on to have a great on-screen adaptation, the Divergent series failed to do so, especially with Allegiant, the last book in the series that was supposed to be made into two separate movies. But due to the abundant negative reviews and the bad performance at the box office, the second part was cancelled. A series adaptation of the books that were in the plans was also cancelled after this movie, which put an end to this series.
The Girl On The Train
The Girl On The Train is a mystery/thriller novel by Paula Hawkins that was adapted into a movie starring Emily Blunt. The movie received criticism stating that it was made very predictable, and many elements from the book were missing or changed. This was also one of the movie adaptations that was made after seeing the success of another similar book to a movie franchise. After seeing the success of Gone Girl, this movie was released. While it did decently at the box office, the critical reviews were mainly only negative
The Hobbit
The Hobbit is the book that precedes Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein. The Hobbit, or There and Back Again was an individual book that was made into a three-part film series. This was primarily the reason behind why the adaptations were so bad, as they stretched the plot, added unnecessary details, etc. The series was disapproved by both critics and fans alike.
Maze Runner
The Maze Runner movies were good if viewed as individual movies and not as a book adaptation. The movies took away a lot of the growth and development of the characters. They missed the journey of Thomasbecoming a Glade, and so on. The movies were strictly more focused on the Maze, and that was done well. The critical review of this movie was overall positive. The major issue was about the movie being a tamed-down version of the book.
The Vampire Academy
Another young-adult vampire book series, The Vampire Academy was written by Richelle Mead. The series was adapted into a movie in the year 2014 and starred popular names like Anya Taylor Joy, Dominic Sherwood, Zoey Deutch, etc. The movie was criticized for the bad acting, bad wardrobe, bad plot, and basically everything. The movie was nowhere close to being a big hit and lost a decent amount of money post-release.
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