Whether you are a cinema lover or a book reader, you must know that not all movies are Jaws, Harry Potter, and The Godfather. Sure, the purpose of movies is to entertain but the adaptation of the two-hour movie doesn’t always come out as you pictured it to. This often leads to horrible movies that ruined great books.
This gets worse especially when you have already read the book and are eagerly waiting to see your favorite book coming to the screen. Here are some of the horrible movies that ruined great books.
12 Horrible Movies That Ruined Great Books
Here are the 12 horrible movies the ruined great books whether it is because of how they were unable to rightly capture the feel or they went towards it the wrong way. Either way.
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The Great Gatsby
Known as the greatest American Novel, The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald has failed to live up to the expectations of the book. Not just that, although the 1975 Robert Redford version was slightly faithful, it wasn’t as lively as the book. It concentrated too much on the excess that the heart of the story felt untouched.
2. The Percy Jackson Series
The Percy Jackson books series were a major hit but what got it 2/5 on Common Sense Media, 6.8/10 on IMDb and 49% on Rotten Tomatoes was how they changed the main concepts of the book and held the major essence people were looking forward to.
People were disappointed especially at the ending. However, unlike the movie, the book has made a mark as being one of the best series to read of all time.
3. The Girl on the Train
The Girl on the Train is an engaging psychological thriller about a woman who tries to solve a mystery that she witnesses from her eye. She found out about the upcoming mishap before one member of the couple goes missing. The book has excellent ratings and reviews which is the main reason why it has turned into a movie today.
As one of the viewers from Buzzfeed said “They didn’t do a good job of just explaining anything. If I hadn’t read the book it would have flown right over me that Rachel got cheated on and that Anna was the other woman. I could write a book about what a horrible job they did with this movie but I’m afraid they would try to turn that book into a movie and butcher it too”.
Therefore, the movie failed to be as successful as the book.
4. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams’ outstanding madcap story on a hapless Earthman on a run around the universe in his dressing gown. The comedy science fiction has not turned into a series, novel and even radio show but the movie is where it missed the true touch of Douglas Adams’ books.
Although the script was penned by Adams himself before passing away in 2001, the 109-minute movie missed out on a lot of the important points from the book. Unless you have read the book, you won’t be able to pinpoint the flaws, but if you are already a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, brace yourself or get disappointed at the casting and other adaptations of the movie.
5. The Hobbit
Comparatively of all the rest of the horrible movies that ruined great books mentioned on this list, The Hobbit still has a better rating. Getting 64% by Rotten Tomatoes, the movie was a deviation from J.R.R Tolkien’s fantasy novel which left millions of fans disappointed.
Where the book kept my eyes glued to the book for days, the movie simply didn’t do justice to how irresistibly engaging the book was. In fact, the book is a perfect balance of action, thrill and exposition to make a tale as entertaining as the Hobbit.
But the fact that Warner Brothers split a 310-page novel into 3 parts, it was obvious that you will get to see many fillers and useless scenes that only deteriorated the quality of the story. Even though the book left a lasting impression on its readers, people can’t seem to forget the terrible execution of the movie.
6. The Giver
Just like the Hobbit, The makers of The Giver also filled up the movie with unnecessary scenes and love stories that didn’t make sense together. The movie also entails dramatic action moments that seemed like fluff rather than something to add value to the story. The book, on the other hand, blends all the characters, senses and story together to make it one of my favourite science fiction books to read.
7. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Alan Moore did an excellent job at creating something as revolutionary as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen only to see it rotting on Rotten Tomatoes reviews and ratings. Luckily, its lack of success didn’t affect the book as people still love and cherish the book they did before the movie was released. In the original graphic novel, you get to see the famous collection of literary figures like Henry Jekyll, Dracula’s Mina, and Allan Quatermain teaming up to go for a mission that remains hidden from the world. After the movie, the star Sean Connery retired to end the clash between him and the director.
8. The Maze Runner
Sure, you can’t expect the movie to be an exact copy of the book and I understand that but The Maze Runner changed the major or should I say the best parts from the book like the image itself or the characters which took away everything I liked about the story. Attention to details wasn’t even a question when you got the whole story flipped around.
However, on the brighter side, the movie had the same refreshing dark edge to it which made up for most of the disappointment people felt for the movie.
9. Love, Rosie
The best novel was originally called Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern but the film and the subsequent edition took the name Love, Rosie to help resonate better with the story. I personally noticed the makers of the movie cut down more than half of the movie. And not just any story, they took out the real humour from the movie which helped give it the ever needed character to a romance novel. Besides the chemistry, Lily Collins and Sam Claflin shared nothing in the movie that seemed to align well with the book.
10. Divergent Series: Allegiant
Divergent started out with a bang with 41% on Rotten Tomatoes but as the sequels continued and the special effects increased, the parts dropped down to 28% and the final chapter received 11% on all the overall performance and story. In fact, it got so bad that the part after that even got abandoned due to low ratings. It was just the special effects that absolutely killed the vibes; it was also the deviation from the main story and book which left people disheartened at the end of each chapter.
11. The Golden Compass
There is no doubt that Warner Bros tried to copy the adaption of the iconic movie Harry Potter during the making of The Golden Compass. Considering how Pullman’s novels are more twisted than Rowling’s stories, nothing seemed to blend well on the screen.
The action was amped up in the movie; the two follow-ups were dropped right after the failure of the first part. However, the TV version of His Dark Materials written by the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child co-writer Jack Throne is currently running on BBC to make a decent impression.
12. The Shining
Okay, I get it you didn’t see this coming but if you have read the book you will certainly agree with me. The movie completely missed the point where Jack struggles against the hotel trying to kill his son. The movie even deleted some of the important maze scenes and some characters which added value to the story in the book.
