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As a book lover, you know there’s nothing worse than waiting in anticipation for a movie adaptation of your favorite book, only to discover that they totally botched it. To be fair, it’s generally known that we book lovers will never be truly happy with a movie until they start making them 20 hours long and a perfect line by line adaptation of the books. But at least there is usually something we can enjoy from most movie adaptations of books. Unfortunately, some are so bad that there’s not a single redeemable quality to hold on to.
A horrible movie doesn’t just mean that you’ll never get to see your favorite moments acted out to perfection just like you’ve imagined in your head, but it also usually means that you’ll never get the chance to see the sequel. A bad adaptation is a lose-lose all around, and leaves us wishing it never had been made. At least then the images in our heads wouldn’t be tainted, and then we could dream that a better studio might pick it up and give it the attention it deserves.
We recently asked book lovers on our Facebook page what they felt the worse movie adaptations ever made were, and these are their answers.
The Worst Movie Adaptions of Books Ever Made
Here are some of the comments our follows said:
“All of them!”
“The Maze Runner Movies”
“Most of the Stephen King books had horrible film adaptations. The only exception was Misery. I hate watching movies that are adaptations of books I’ve read because they are not usually done well.”
“The 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.”
“Addicted and Fifty Shades Trilogy.”
Blood & Chocolate! The only thing the book and movie had in common were werewolves & the character names! The only time I have ever had an issue with book/movie adaptations, and it’s one of my hobbies to compare them!”
“Last Summer’s The Dark Tower . . .”
“Silver Linings Playbook, the book was really good, the movie was ok. I feel the movie missed the mark on a few things that could have been better. I know there are worst ones like Eragon, but Silver Linings Playbook movie wasn’t what it could have been.”
“My Sister’s Keeper. WTH-that ending!!”
“A Series of Unfortunate Events, the movie … the one with Jim Carrey, who was a superb Count Olaf, and the kids were great, too… but they crunched three books into one movie and it was DREADFUL. Really, truly, profoundly, DREADFUL! The kid sitting in front of us said, “Well, that could not possibly have gone worse” while the credits rolled.”
“The movie version Series of Unfortunate Events”
“The Firm. Ugh!”
“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”
“Some people may know of ‘My Friend Flicka’, by Mary O’Hara, about a ranch family in Wyoming during the Depression. Less well known are the sequels, ‘Thunderhead’ and ‘Green Grass of Wyoming’. The film adaptation of the latter was the worst ever movie adaptation of a book.”
“Definitely The Mortal Instruments”
“Jack Reacher!”
“The Spy Who Loved me. Roald Dahl who was Ian Fleming’s good friend (and probably inspiration for James Bond) hated his friend’s original story and when it came time to make the movie offered to write the screenplay. A screenplay that is completely and totally different from the original books. They don’t even have remotely similar plots.”
“Where the Wild Things Are!!”
“Sahara based on a Clive Cussler book.”
“The Black cauldron. Destroyed one of my favorite series from my childhood.”
“Ender’s Game.”
“The last song. (It would have been by itself, but since it came from a book there are certain details that should have been signified.)”
“Insurgent and Allegiant. They really missed the mark with those.”
“Ella Enchanted.
Or the Disney Prince Caspian…”
“Percy Jackson
“Maze Runner
“Divergent (allegiant)”
“Beautiful creatures it’s like they didn’t look into the series at all and threw something together.”
“Any of the Percy Jackson movies”
And the absolutely worst adaptation, according to our readers, was ERAGON! (Although Percy Jackson was a close second.)
“Eragon, definitely!! There are many others but this is tops for me.”
“Eragon!!”
“Yes, definitely Eragon! I wish someone with a budget and a talented crew would remake this.”
“I was just coming to put Eragon at the top of the list.”
“That’s the first one to pop in my mind!”
“So proud this is the top comment.”
“It had to be changed bc if they had made the movie like the book it would have been even more obvious how much he stole from LOTR.”
“I literally ranted for an hour after with my cousin and mom who also read the book and ranted off each other.”
If you’re curious to see the full post with all the comments, check it out on our Facebook page.
And, as always, let us know what you think the worst movie adaptations of books are in the comments below!
Happy reading,
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As someone who read the books long before the movies, the Maze Runner and the Death Cure, (the Scorch Trials is in its own league of disappointing for reasons we won’t go into) aren’t that bad of adaptations. In fact, there are lots of things they get right with the books, probably more so than many adaptations. The Maze Runner’s issue is that it’s incredibly boring at times, and the Death Cure tries to do too much and adds too many subplots and events that don’t really work out and follow through
Exodist
Enemy Mine by Barry B Longyear was a funny and philosophical look at the nature of friendship. The movie of the same name was a bad action film with no depth to the characters at all. Truly, the only good thing about the movie was that Barry got some money out of it.
A possible exception: The Abyss, the book was written after the movie, a complete reversal….
An enjoyable movie/book….
Worst movie from a book was the Jack Reacher movie. NO WAY was this acceptable. Problem was the actor who played Jack Reacher. Jack is 6’5″, weighs about 250 and has hands “like hams.” Tom as Jack. Just laughable.
While I agree that Eragon was badly done, my favorite complaint was for Starshiip Troopers. Except for the name of the lead character, the story goes completely off base with the details. Such as: the infantry was NOT coed!; the armor was virtually indestructible and and capable of withstanding tactical nukes; virtually all pilots were female, the last voice heard by the infantry when jumping was always female; and Rick’s father was in his unit after he got commissioned. Etc., etc, etc,.
Jason Bourne (all the movies)! The movies may be ok if you have never read the books, but seriously disgusted with them not even close to following the books.
I also thought Ella Enchanted was a terrible rendition of the book, but if I took it separately, not connected with the book, I enjoyed it. I confess to also enjoying the Lord of the Rings movies. In the books there were some instances where we were told what had happened instead of being there ourselves. Holes was another movie I enjoyed, but the book was still better. Books have more meat and feeling. You get to know the characters more. One book I enjoyed more after seeing the 5-hour PBS version was Pride and Prejudice.
The Horseshisper I had loved the book cried and laughed and oh the blue eyes they talked about in the whole book. I couldn’t wait to see the movie the only thing I cried over in it was how bad it was.
In my opinion, The Martian by Andy Weir.
The book was sensational. The movie was an insult to mr Weir’s work.
Movie makers were overly ambitious with this project and made an absolute mess, in spite of using the fabulous Matt Damon as the star. I’m sure this movie ruined his career!
Took many adaptations cut out important details or make stuff up for Dramatic Effect (or so called). Use the material that is given you. We loved the books because we could see with our imaginations what was going on.
The Twilight Sagas, I loved the books, only watched half of the first movie. It was BAD!!
The Horsewhisper, no way did it at all show what the girl and the horse went through before, during or after the horrorific accident. The movie made it all about the mother going to bed with the Horsewhisper. Another was Seabiscut it didn’t come close to showing why he was such a great horse or how the owner, trainer and the horse were underdogs but they triumphed to be the best.
The absolute worst have been the Starship Troopers franchise
I happened to see the movie Dune before I knew it was a book. So far I love both movies and book series. I also liked the sequel to Children of Dune book and movie.
The Hobbit, they destroyed unavailability line.
Hands down–Watchers. If that movie had been from the best book I’d ever written, I might never write another. Close second: Reacher movies with Tom Cruise. Those movies managed to ruin the books for me.
It seems that real readers want real books, and movie goers dont have the imagination to fill in the pauses……
Give me a book any day of the week!