The Best and Worst of Book to Movie Adaptations

Let’s be honest, we all love it when we get to see our favourite books projected on the silver screen for our pleasure. There have been some great adaptions from book to film over the years. Have you notices though that we sometimes believe so much in the film, we sometimes forget how shit it was. Or, unless you’re like me, you see right through it and know that they did a poor job at producing The Mortal Instruments for the big screen.

So, without further ado, here are some of the best and worst book to movie adaptions I have seen.

Best

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee 

I read To Kill A Mockingbird when I was in year 9. Being a person who strongly believes in justice and equality, this book hit some nails on the head in regards to morality, innocence, honesty and racial inequality.

The Pultizer Prize winner was adapted in 1962 and did not disappoint. It was true to the book in all aspects, addressing the unjust treatment of African Americans. racial inequality and rape in a respective and clear manner. Also, Gregory Peck as Atticus was the perfect choice.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K Rowling 

J.K Rowling can do no wrong and the third novel in the series, aside from the seventh, felt the strongest to me out of all of them. The book showed a lot of character development in the trio and introduced darker aspects to the wizarding world we hadn’t seen before such as dementors and werewolves.  This translated well onto the screen, and with Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, of course the movie was brilliant.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Now this series was done especially well on screen and I found the first film to be quite brilliant. Even though Jennifer Lawrence does not look like the Katniss Everdeen in the books, her performance was brilliant. The scenery, the visual effects in regards to the games and the connections between the characters were all excellent. The movie made you empathise with Katniss and Peeta. It made you feel awful for Rue and Cato. It was just great!

 

Perks of Being A Wallflower by  Stephen Chbosky

I hold this book close to my heart and when a movie adaption was announced, I was immediately thinking, ‘They’ll butcher, I swear they will.’ A novel written in the form of letters is hard to translate onto the screen. I guess my negative thoughts towards it were proven wrong because the movie turned out to be amazing. Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Erza Miller’s performances were on point! With such delicate issues to deal with such as abuse, it was handled gracefully.  Made me cry so many times.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 

It may have been because the author of the novel wrote the screenplay that it was such a successful and brilliant movie. I loved how the movie slowly reveals the dirty details of the couple, Nick and Amy Dunne,  in a remarkably suspenseful way. It feeds us the story it wants us to believe about the characters until it all crumbles around us and we see the truth. The novel itself was amazing and the movie was completely true to it.

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Worst

Eragon by Christopher Paolini 

Uhhh, okay so, what the hell were the producers thinking when they picked up this 500 page book? You can’t make that into an hour and half long movie without cutting out every plot. When the best aspect of the movie is the dragon, there’s a problem here. It could have been the low budget that made this movie what it is, but it still happened and I am petitioning for a remake because the novel was pretty good. Even with Jeremy Irons, this movie was a terrible adaption.

 

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead 

This book is so sexy and sassy and badass that it was a flop on the big screen.  I cannot even begin to talk about how much this movie sucked. The overuse of inner monologue got to me. Dimitri looked like he could have been her uncle and not in a hot way – he’s meant to be 24, not 35. The cheesy script, the acting, it all felt so rehearsed and not right. Even the jokes were flat. This review by The Social Potato is accurate in how all fans of the book series felt when they watched the film. There’s a reason why it got 30% on Metacritic and that’s generous.

Go and read the book! It’s pretty awesome.

 

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan 

I love the Percy Jackson series. I picked them up when I was in high school and fell in love instantly. So when I heard they were making a movie, I was doubtful it would be good.

And I was right.

This is legit Annabeth Chase. What happened to her hair? source

I love Logan Lerman as much as the next girl, but he was not the right choice for Percy. What is with Hollywood and choosing actors that are way older than the character? He’s supposed to be 12 not 17. Don’t you just love it when they do that?

While the movie received mixed reviews, I personally found it disappointing due to the casting, the changes they made from the book’s plot and um, making Luke the villain. What happen there?

 

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer 

Don’t get me wrong, the Twilight series wasn’t bad. I found that the books got better as you went further along. However, the first movie wasn’t the best adaption in the series. While the acting was okay, the pace was too slow and pivotal moments were flat. Bella’s character was extremely flat and I found the vampires not attractive at all. The sparkling was on point though! And that forest scene when he reveals what he is, I mean… okay.

The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman 

I’ll admit to reading this book when I was banned from doing so because of the religious controversies. When I’m forbidden to do something, I’ll do it. But this movie… I mean, okay. It basically cut out all of the religious controversy and philosophies that the movie had nothing but polar bear fights and visual effects to keep it afloat – and it deflated. It was a poor choice to make a book about atheism into a movie because the dominant religion in America is Christianity – if they had done it right, we could all be in a different place.

And that’s all I have for this week!

Let me know in the comments what your favourite book to movie adaptions are!